"I had a full-time job building furniture," Shepherd says. "We were running four nights a week in places all over the Southeast-Columbia, Hickory, Kingsport and Fayetteville. I was a typical American boy in the fast lane. If I had been wealthy, I would have gotten into real trouble.
"I went to Daytona in 1975, and when I got back my wife had left me. I accepted Jesus Christ into my life. I realized just how harmful my life had become. I wasted a lot of years letting alcohol do my thinking for me. The one thing in life I loved to do the most (racing) was being taken away from me because of my lifestyle."
Then he started to climb back, driving anything he could. He ran 60 races that year for 17 different car owners and finished second in the NASCAR Sportsman national championship to L.D. Ottinger, who was financed heavily by the Black Diamond Coal Mining Company.
Shepherd's big break came in 1978, when he hooked up with Cliff Stewart, who owned a western North Carolina furniture factory. The Stewart-Shepherd combo ran in about 60 races a year from 1979-1980, and won a lot of races and the 1980 NASCAR Sportsman series (now Busch Grand National) national championship.
But even then, trouble was brewing. Shepherd's race shop burned down during that 1980 championship run. He worked on his car out in the open on just a concrete slab. He had one employee and one race car. Still, he won nine races and finished second 21 times.
Moving UpAfter conquering that title, Shepherd set his sights on Winston Cup.
"Cliff came to me in October of 1980," Morgan remembers. "He says, 'Morgan, me and mom (Cliff's wife) have talked about it and we want to help you run for Rookie of the Year.'
"I called Mike Laughlin (Winston Cup car builder) and ordered a Pontiac. Then I found a shop, leased it for $450 a month, and hired my team. In the beginning, I was the only guy on that team who could weld."
Shepherd missed the first two races of 1981, Riverside, California, and the Daytona 500. He went to the third race of the season at the old Richmond fairgrounds raceway and sat on the pole. He finished the race in fourth place.
"Just after the Richmond race, some of the newspapers made fun of my rag-tag crew," Shepherd says. "They said we were mostly misfits. Some of those boys are still in the sport today in top positions."
That year turned out to be a great season for Shepherd's rookie year. He had 29 starts, with three Top-5s and 10 Top-10 finishes. He led 690 laps and won $165,329 that season-about the cost of one fully equipped race car and spare engine in today's world. And he finished a respectable 13th in the point standings.
But more importantly, Shepherd served notice that he was for real. He won the Virginia 500 on the half-mile Martinsville Speedway in his rookie season-a season that also included rookie drivers Tim Richmond and Ron Bouchard.
Shepherd was on his way, but it wasn't smooth sailing. Shepherd says his crew wanted more money. Stewart ended up hiring a new crew chief in the middle of the season. The new crewman and Shepherd didn't get along. "I almost whipped his rear end in the garage area at Talladega," Shepherd says.
Shepherd won the points system for Rookie of the Year, but didn't get the award.Some say his rough-and-tumble style and his relationships with his crew and owner were to blame. Bouchard won the title; Shepherd and Cliff Stewart split up.
"We had something special," Shepherd says. "We would've been a force in racing, but all the hard headedness destroyed it all. Sometimes situations like that only come along a few times in life."
Ups And DownsShepherd then entered into another career slump. He drove next for independents Cecil Gordon and Buddy Arrington with little success. He also teamed with country music star T.G. Shepherd in 1982.
"T.G. tried to persuade me to advertise beer on my car," Shepherd says. "Coors called to sponsor our car. With alcohol in my past, I just couldn't do it."