69 Year Old NASCAR Driver Chases Down Thief In Las Vegas

by Staff - March 1st, 2011 - Channel 41 NBC News

Most NASCAR drivers don't come to mind when you think of Las Vegas crimefighters, but then again, most NASCAR drivers aren't 69-year-old Morgan Shepherd.

The veteran of 44 NASCAR seasons was getting out of his rental car in the parking lot of a Wal-Mart store Monday evening just minutes away from Las Vegas Motor Speedway just as three men burst from the store's entrance with security forces trailing behind.

That's when Shepherd, a daily jogger and fitness perfectionist, sprang into action.

"I just got out and took off after them," Shepherd said. "I caught one of them just as they were getting ready to hop a little wall at the end of the parking lot. I yanked him down and got on top of him."

I love this story on so many levels.

First, race drivers are often denigrated as not being athletes. The truth is that fighting the high G-forces of a race car is really hard physical work and when you have to keep making split second decisions while enduring these muscular stresses for more than 3 hours, you better be in good shape. Morgan clearly is.

Second, the past retirment age 69 year old Morgan outran an 18 year old and SAT on him. It just proves that old guys are not necessarily over the hill.

Third, Morgan and his wife shop at Walmart. It proves that being frugal is still a part of the culture of our nation.

Finally, the cops were able to differentiate the difference between someone who was on the side of justice and the criminals. On TV, cops are often shown as hostile to all civilians, and it is just not true.

Stories like this used to be the normal way America operated. Now they are rare. That is the only sad part of the story.