Kyle Busch approaches mark for early-season Cup success

DOVER, Del. — Morgan Shepherd pushed his No. 89 Chevrolet for a few feet through the garage with all the might a 77-year-old NASCAR driver could muster before yielding to his crew.

Pushing 80, Shepherd just might race long enough for his age to match his car number.

“Oh, yeah. That won’t be nothing,” Shepherd said.

Shepherd made his mark with a smaller, yet significant, number in 1990: 11. Shepherd posted a record 11 straight top-10 finishes to open the season in the Cup series, driving for Hall of Fame car owner Bud Moore.

Las Vegas native Kyle Busch is closing in on Shepherd’s milestone, going 10 for 10 heading into Sunday’s Gander RV 400 at Dover International Speedway. Busch, the 2015 NASCAR champion, already has three wins and barely extended the streak last weekend when he finished 10th at Talladega.

“It is kind of on our mind right now,” Busch said. “Going into every week, we want to win. That is what we strive to do every time we hit the track. We thought it would come to an end last week at Talladega and it was close. We were right on the verge, but we made it through another one.”

Busch is one of NASCAR’s greatest drivers and just hit 200 career wins across all three national series. That he would run off this kind of consistency is hardly a surprise for the Joe Gibbs Racing driver that is a threat for a checkered flag each time he races.

Shepherd now races in the second-tier Xfinity Series and is rooting for Busch to at least match the mark.