From Spin to Win: J.R. Shepherd Wins at Mid-Ohio

J.R. Shepherd's Cadillac CTS-V IROC Car

It all played out like J.R. Shepherd had likely planned and Hubble (YesterYear's in-house AI Bot) had predicted. Get to the front early, pull away quickly, and set her on cruise control. Except for the fact it didn't play out that way at all. Yes, J.R. quickly got in front, and yes he looked to be pulling away. But tragedy struck on lap two coming out of The Esses onto Thunder Valley straight when Shepherd hit the gas too early and spun his Cadillac CTS-V into the grass. Driver Jeff Aho followed the same pattern and spun as well taking an unfortunate Tom Ogle out of the race. The incident put J.R. back into 6th position and OBRL's Josh Robinson in command of the race.

From there, the race started to settle into a rhythmic tone for the front runners, except for J.R., who made quick work of Todd Liston and Allen Wannamaker (a sub driver for Lloyd Moore) and began chasing down the top three. First on Shepherd's list was Sean Foltz. J.R. was patient and waited a couple of laps before making his move. Shepherd then chased down Christian Loschen, but Loschen pitted for a splash of gas as to not burn his tires up battling J.R. for position. Loschen misjudged a bit and came out behind Wannamaker and lost time to Robinson and Shepherd before finally clearing Wannamaker after a couple of laps. Attrition began settling in. Brian Bianchi blew his engine and had to retire. Todd Liston spun a couple of times but stayed in the race. John Wilson missed the start of the race and never got going. Back up front it didn't take long for Shepherd to run down Robinson and clear him. Once that happened J.R.'s original plan set in. Out front, he could now get into a rhythm and cruise to victory, which he did. Robinson managed to hang onto second place, while VLS iRacing's Christian Loschen finished third.

In his post race interview Shepherd, nicknamed "The Institution" for his unbelievable number of wins and championships in the Bootleg Racing League, said "I didn't plan it that way, but I got on the gas too early coming out of The Esses which put me in a tough spot."

With the win, Shepherd inherits the points lead followed by Robinson who is three points behind, and Jeffery Hardin who is nine points behind in third.

Round 3 of the YesterYear Racing™ IROC Series will take place on Tuesday, August 19, 2025 at Atlanta Motor Speedway's 2008 track design.