Shepherd Captures Round One YesterYear IROC Win at Daytona

J.R. Shepherd's Orangello Cadillac CTS-V

Bootleg Racing League's J.R. Shepherd, the driver known simply as "The Institution," picked up where he left off in 2025 by capturing the opening round of the 2026 YesterYear Racing™ League's IROC Series. The Series takes champion drivers from seven of the best iRacing leagues on the platform and pits them against one another in a 5-race series that takes place over a calendar year. Shepherd, who drove the Orangello Cadillac CTS-V, led all but one lap of the 35-lap event which was the American Road Course discipline in the Series and was held at the Daytona International Speedway Road Course. Shepherd, who is also the defending champion of the Series, said the car was a "handful" to drive on the Florida road course. When asked about Round 2 of the Series which will be held at Iowa Speedway in May, Shepherd said he looked forward to the Iowa race, but expected the car to be a challenge to drive there as well, stating that the Cadillac CTS-V seems to always have a "slight push" no matter what track it is driven on. He also signaled that he thought the Iowa race, which will be the short track oval discipline in the Series, would be a much closer and tighter race than what we saw here at Daytona. Red Light Racing League driver Chris Hammett surprised viewers by finishing strong in second place, just over 9 seconds behind Shepherd. Hubble, the YesterYear Racing™ League's in-house AI Bot, did not have Hammett on the radar even as a "Dark Horse" driver. Instead, Hubble predicted OBRL's Josh Robinson for the win, Shepherd for second place, and OBRL's Andrew Kotska for third. Kotska got together with Robinson on lap one damaging his car to the point of not being a factor in the race. Chris Hammett could not be reached for a post race interview after the event. Rounding out the podium was Robinson who finished as the runner-up in the 2025 YesterYear IROC series. Robinson was able to strategically save fuel and stay out for one lap after Shepherd pitted for fuel thus securing himself a very valuable 3 bonus points for leading the second most laps of the race. In his post race interview Robinson seemed to be happy with his 3rd place run but stated he looked forward to the upcoming Iowa race in May and echoed Shepherd's sentiment that he thought Round 2 would be a much more closely fought affair. The remainder of the field battled it out to try and salvage as many points as possible before heading to Iowa in May. When asked about the event, YesterYear Founder and League Co-Owner Allen Wannamaker said, "I thought it was a solid race that played out pretty much how I expected. I thought Hammett ran a very solid race which told me two things. First, he is a great driver, and second, he definitely put in the practice time. To be that close to J.R. after 35 laps at the Daytona Road Course was impressive."

Torrance Childs, who is Co-Owner of the YesterYear Racing™ League with Wannamaker and who was the lead Racing Steward for the event, added, "I thought the racing was great overall. There were a couple of incidents on the track that we will review, but overall the race craft was quality which is what you would expect from the caliber of champions that are racing this Series.

Shepherd will take an 8 point lead in the standings over Chris Hammett and Josh Robinson when the Series heads to Iowa Speedway in May for Round 2 of the Series.