Timms Scores Big In Wednesday Knoxville Nationals Prelim

KNOXVILLE, Iowa – All season, 18-year-old Ryan Timms has been a top performer at Knoxville Raceway. Wednesday night, he reinforced that point on sprint car racing’s biggest stage.

Timms charged from eighth to first to win his first-ever preliminary main event at the NOS Energy Drink Knoxville Nationals presented by Casey’s during BRANDT Qualifying Night at the half-mile dirt oval.

With a dominant Liebig Motorsports No. 10, Timms roared from the outside of the fourth row to third place on the opening lap of the 25-lap feature, then wasted little time after that in getting to the lead.

He was second by the end of lap two, then reeled in early pace-setter Justin Peck over the next few rotations as he and Peck slowly caught the back of the field.

At that point, one of the best at working Knoxville traffic flexed his muscles, as Timms used a run down the frontstretch on lap 10 to catch Peck before firing a slide-job pass into turn one to take control.

From there, Timms checked out, weathering one mid-race restart and driving away during the second half to take his fifth 410 sprint car win of the year at the Marion County Fairgrounds by 1.021 seconds.

Bigger than his continued dominance at Knoxville, however, was the fact that Wednesday night’s victory was a score during Nationals week. For the Oklahoma teenager, that took some time to sink in.

“I don’t even know what to say,” Timms said. “This thing is so fast. I just got a really good start there and kind of was just able to hunt him down. Man, what a night.

“That one’s for Sam Liebig, who passed away not too long ago. Shoutout to the whole Liebig family, and Shane and Sam especially. This is just great,” Timms added. “I can easily say this is the biggest crowd I’ve ever won in front of, so I want to thank everybody for coming out. You don’t get any better feeling than that right there.”

Just one yellow flag slowed Wednesday’s feature, waving with 11 laps complete after Kaleb Johnson got over the turn-one cushion and pinwheeled through the air before getting upside down with his No. 6K.

Johnson was uninjured in the wild-looking incident and walked away under his own power.

The single-file restart saw Timms easily take off from Peck, who hung on to second and still earned a career-best finish at Knoxville, despite the disappointment of missing out on the win in his Rudeen Racing-prepared No. 26.

“We were way too free all night Sunday [during the Capitani Classic at Knoxville],” Peck reflected. “We started a bit tighter today and were too tight throughout the day, but I was confident in what we had going on overall.”

Stenhouse Jr.-Marshall Racing driver Sheldon Haudenschild completed the podium finishers, followed by Garet Williamson and Emerson Axsom, the reigning Knoxville Nationals Rookie of the Year.

The night’s biggest mover was Corey Day, who qualified second but missed the transfer in his heat race and had to salvage his entire week by racing into the main via the Micro-Lite Last Chance Showdown.

Once in the show, however, Day stormed from 22nd to seventh to tie himself with fast qualifier Rico Abreu for third in total event points after the first preliminary night.

Abreu won the Last Chance Showdown and finished eighth in the nightcap after starting in 21st place.

But the night was about the red-headed teenager who stood in victory lane and may have established himself as a surprise favorite to take all the Knoxville Nationals glory come Saturday night.

With six overall Knoxville victories this season between 410ci and 360ci sprint car action, Timms is the track’s winningest driver thus far, but he also was Wednesday’s high-point earner by a sizable margin.

Timms earned 487 of a possible 500 points between qualifying, heat race, and feature action, putting himself well in line for a top-five starting spot – or even possibly a front-row position – for the grand finale.

He’s not feeling the pressure, though. That comes later in the week, Timms admitted.

“I’m happy to have two days off coming up here,” said Timms. “I’ll celebrate tonight with friends and family, Then, I don’t know, play golf tomorrow and just hang out and get ready for Saturday. We’ll see how many guys beat me tomorrow in points and see where that puts us and just kind of go from there.”

Action during the NOS Energy Drink Knoxville Nationals presented by Casey’s continues Thursday with Toyota Qualifying Night, the second act of split-field preliminaries for the most prestigious sprint car race in the world.

Every lap of Knoxville Nationals week streams live on DIRTvision, the exclusive home of the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series.

RESULTS: 64th Knoxville Nationals; BRANDT Qualifying Night; Knoxville (Iowa) Raceway; Aug. 6, 2025

Qualifying (best of two laps): 1. 24R-Rico Abreu, 15.411; 2. 14BC-Corey Day, 15.414; 3. 10-Ryan Timms, 15.479; 4. 2-David Gravel, 15.505; 5. 17A-Jack Anderson, 15.526; 6. 42-Sye Lynch, 15.534; 7. 27-Carson McCarl, 15.591; 8. 21T-James McFadden, 15.623; 9. 1A-Ashton Torgerson, 15.635; 10. 88-Austin McCarl, 15.689; 11. 87-Justin Sanders, 15.697; 12. 18-Emerson Axsom, 15.698; 13. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild, 15.705; 14. 3-Ayrton Gennetten, 15.711; 15. 23-Garet Williamson, 15.724; 16. 7S-Chris Windom, 15.731; 17. 26-Justin Peck, 15.779; 18. 39M-Anthony Macri, 15.784; 19. 55-Hunter Schuerenberg, 15.786; 20. 17GP-Tim Shaffer, 15.799; 21. 5W-Lucas Wolfe, 15.832; 22. 6-Zach Hampton, 15.851; 23. 36-Jason Martin, 15.901; 24. 48-Danny Dietrich, 15.932; 25. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr., 15.951; 26. 15-Donny Schatz, 15.952; 27. 13-Daison Pursley, 15.956; 28. 09-Matt Juhl, 15.964; 29. 24D-Danny Sams III, 15.966; 30. 52-Blake Hahn, 15.967; 31. 18T-Tanner Holmes, 15.986; 32. 6K-Kaleb Johnson, 16.005; 33. 45X-Landon Crawley, 16.033; 34. 32B-Brandon Spithaler, 16.034; 35. 74-Xavier Doney, 16.038; 36. 1K-Kelby Watt, 16.074; 37. 15JR-Cole Mincer, 16.098; 38. 22-Riley Goodno, 16.125; 39. 44-Chris Martin, 16.140; 40. 12X-Hank Davis, 16.151; 41. 2KS-Brooke Tatnell, 16.195; 42. 25-Tim Kaeding, 16.228; 43. 9R-Chase Randall, 16.228; 44. 44X-Scotty Johnson, 16.268; 45. 4W-Jamie Ball, 16.268; 46. 121-R.J. Johnson, 16.269; 47. 71-Brandon Worthington, 16.313; 48. 11N-Kasey Jedrzejek, 16.382; 49. 67-Justin Whittall, 16.416; 50. 10V-Ben Brown, 16.567; 51. 65-Jordan Goldesberry, NT.

Heat #1 (10 laps, top four transfer): 1. 18T-Tanner Holmes [2]; 2. 1K-Kelby Watt [1]; 3. 5W-Lucas Wolfe [4]; 4. 7S-Chris Windom [5] / 5. 15-Donny Schatz [3]; 6. 42-Sye Lynch [7]; 7. 24R-Rico Abreu [8]; 8. 87-Justin Sanders [6]; 9. 2KS-Brooke Tatnell [9]; 10. 121-R.J. Johnson [10].

Heat #2 (10 laps, top four transfer): 1. 6K-Kaleb Johnson [2]; 2. 18-Emerson Axsom [6]; 3. 26-Justin Peck [5]; 4. 13-Daison Pursley [3] / 5. 27-Carson McCarl [7]; 6. 15JR-Cole Mincer [1]; 7. 14BC-Corey Day [8]; 8. 25-Tim Kaeding [9]; 9. 6-Zach Hampton [4]; 10. 71-Brandon Worthington [10].

Heat #3 (10 laps, top four transfer): 1. 45X-Landon Crawley [2]; 2. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild [6]; 3. 22-Riley Goodno [1]; 4. 10-Ryan Timms [8] / 5. 36-Jason Martin [4]; 6. 21T-James McFadden [7]; 7. 39M-Anthony Macri [5]; 8. 09-Matt Juhl [3]; 9. 9R-Chase Randall [9]; 10. 11N-Kasey Jedrzejek [10].

Heat #4 (10 laps, top four transfer): 1. 44-Chris Martin [1]; 2. 48-Danny Dietrich [4]; 3. 32B-Brandon Spithaler [2]; 4. 24D-Danny Sams III [3] / 5. 1A-Ashton Torgerson [7]; 6. 3-Ayrton Gennetten [6]; 7. 55-Hunter Schuerenberg [5]; 8. 67-Justin Whittall [10]; 9. 44X-Scotty Johnson [9]; 10. 2-David Gravel [8].

Heat #5 (10 laps, top four transfer): 1. 52-Blake Hahn [3]; 2. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr. [4]; 3. 23-Garet Williamson [6]; 4. 88-Austin McCarl [7]; 5. 74-Xavier Doney [2]; 6. 17GP-Tim Shaffer [5]; 7. 17A-Jack Anderson [8]; 8. 12X-Hank Davis [1]; 9. 10V-Ben Brown [9]; 10. 4W-Jamie Ball (DNS).

C-Main (10 laps, top four transfer): 1. 2-David Gravel [1]; 2. 6-Zach Hampton [2]; 3. 9R-Chase Randall [4]; 4. 2KS-Brooke Tatnell [3] / 5. 121-R.J. Johnson [6]; 6. 10V-Ben Brown [8]; 7. 44X-Scotty Johnson [5]; 8. 71-Brandon Worthington [7]; 9. 65-Jordan Goldesberry [9]; 10. 4W-Jamie Ball (DNS); 11. 11N-Kasey Jedrzejek (DNS).

Micro-Lite Last Chance Showdown (12 laps, top four transfer): 1. 24R-Rico Abreu [1]; 2. 14BC-Corey Day [2]; 3. 17A-Jack Anderson [3]; 4. 21T-James McFadden [6] / 5. 42-Sye Lynch [4]; 6. 39M-Anthony Macri [10]; 7. 27-Carson McCarl [5]; 8. 2-David Gravel [21]; 9. 3-Ayrton Gennetten [9]; 10. 87-Justin Sanders [8]; 11. 36-Jason Martin [13]; 12. 1A-Ashton Torgerson [7]; 13. 55-Hunter Schuerenberg [11]; 14. 15-Donny Schatz [14]; 15. 09-Matt Juhl [15]; 16. 2KS-Brooke Tatnell [24]; 17. 67-Justin Whittall [20]; 18. 9R-Chase Randall [23]; 19. 25-Tim Kaeding [19]; 20. 17GP-Tim Shaffer [12]; 21. 74-Xavier Doney [16]; 22. 15JR-Cole Mincer [17]; 23. 6-Zach Hampton [22]; 24. 12X-Hank Davis (DNS).

NOS Energy Drink A-Main (25 laps): 1. 10-Ryan Timms [8]; 2. 26-Justin Peck [2]; 3. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild [5]; 4. 23-Garet Williamson [4]; 5. 18-Emerson Axsom [6]; 6. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr. [10]; 7. 14BC-Corey Day [22]; 8. 24R-Rico Abreu [21]; 9. 7S-Chris Windom [3]; 10. 88-Austin McCarl [7]; 11. 48-Danny Dietrich [9]; 12. 18T-Tanner Holmes [14]; 13. 13-Daison Pursley [11]; 14. 1K-Kelby Watt [18]; 15. 21T-James McFadden [24]; 16. 17A-Jack Anderson [23]; 17. 52-Blake Hahn [13]; 18. 44-Chris Martin [20]; 19. 5W-Lucas Wolfe [1]; 20. 45X-Landon Crawley [16]; 21. 24D-Danny Sams III [12]; 22. 22-Riley Goodno [19]; 23. 32B-Brandon Spithaler [17]; 24. 6K-Kaleb Johnson [15].

Lap Leader(s): Justin Peck 1-9, Ryan Timms 10-25.

KSE Hard Charger: #14BC-Corey Day (+15)