OKLAHOMA OPENER: Ryan Timms Charges from Eighth to Win Knoxville Nationals Qualifying Night

The Sooner puts on a show on the way to his sixth victory of the year at Knoxville

KNOXVILLE, IA (Aug. 6, 2025) – The combination of Ryan Timms and Liebig Motorsports had been a lethal one all season at Knoxville Raceway, but could they perform on the sport’s biggest stage?

They answered that answered that question loudly and clearly on Wednesday night.

The 64th running of the NOS Energy Drink Knoxville Nationals presented by Casey’s opened with BRANDT Professional Agriculture Qualifying Night, and Timms simply would not be stopped. It began with him timing the No. 10 in third quickest in Honest Abe Roofing Qualifying. An eighth to fourth drive in his Heat was enough to sneak into the main event, and the invert lined him up outside row four for the 25-lapper.

The Oklahoma City, OK native sliced his way toward the front when the green lights came on the way Shai Gilgeous-Alexander cuts through defenses on the court. It took Timms only two laps to march from eighth to second, and then his sights were firmly fixed on leader Justin Peck.

The opening Timms needed came on Lap 10 when he got a run down the front straightaway and fired a slide job into Turn 1 that easily cleared the Rudeen Racing No. 26. Peck didn’t have the momentum to try a crossover, and Timms was off. He stretched the advantage to nearly three seconds before Peck tried to rally late but didn’t have enough. Timms took the checkered and climbed all the way atop the wing of his machine in celebration. It might only be a prelim, but a win at the Knoxville Nationals of any kind is a win at the sport’s most prestigious event. Emotion was plentiful in Victory Lane.

“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, Shane and Sam especially. This is just great. 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.”

Timms’ victory gives his six for the year at Knoxville with the Liebig crew, making him the track’s winningest driver in 2025. Most importantly, he emerged from the night as the high point man by a wide margin. His total of 487 is a distant margin ahead of second place Sheldon Haudenschild’s tally of 469, meaning Timms is very likely to line up in the first couple rows of Saturday’s $195,000 to win Knoxville Nationals Championship Feature. For being only 18 years old, Timms isn’t feeling the pressure.

“I’m happy to have two days off coming up here,” Timms said. “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.”

After leading early before Timms got by, Justin Peck held on for the runner-up spot, notching a new personal-best mark at Knoxville. It was a nice rebound for Peck and the Rudeen crew after some struggles at Sunday’s Capitani Classic. The Monrovia, IN driver sits sixth in points with a tally of 460 and has history on his side as he hopes it’s enough to lock into Saturday’s main event.

“We shook it up Sunday and were just terrible,” Peck said. “We were way too free all night. We started a light tighter today and were too tight throughout the day, but I was confident in what we had going on. We understood the changes we were making and figured out where we were going to go from there. My point is all in all we hit it on the setup.”

Sheldon Haudenschild and the Stenhouse Jr.-Marshall Racing team rounded out the Knoxville podium after starting the Feature in fifth. The team NOS Energy Drink driver left the night feeling very confident in his ride, and his point total will be more than enough to land him in the Championship Feature with potentially a top 10 starting spot.

“Those first two laps there were major,” Haudenschild explained. “I got to the outside of the 7S (Chris Windom) and had Lucas (Wolfe) there and had to throw a pretty good slider on Lucas and just get going and get by the 23 (Garet Williamson). I knew he was good. I had to get him cleared and put my race together. That’s probably the best I’ve ever felt here at Knoxville. (Kyle) Ripper and the boys got this NOS Energy Drink 17 rolling. I think before that yellow I was the only one trying the bottom there on both ends and was kind of running them down waiting for traffic. After that caution it just kind of got spread out.”

Garet Williamson and Emerson Axsom completed the top five.

After transferring from the Micro-Lite Last Chance Showdown, Corey Day marched the Jason Meyers Racing No. 14BC from 22nd to seventh to earn KSE Racing Products Hard Charger honors.

Rico Abreu earned Simpson Quick Time honors.

Heat Races belonged to Tanner Holmes (NOS Energy Drink Heat One), Kaleb Johnson (Real American Beer Heat Two), Landon Crawley (WIX Filters Heat Three), Chris Martin (TheGreatestStoreonDirt.com Heat Four), and Blake Hahn (Toyota Heat Five).

The SPA Technique Pole Award went to Lucas Wolfe.

Rico Abreu won the Micro-Lite Last Chance Showdown.

The Smith Titanium Brake Systems Break of the Race went to Anthony Macri.

FEATURE RESULTS:

A Feature (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]

For complete results, CLICK HERE.

UP NEXT: The World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Cars are back at Knoxville Raceway for Toyota Qualifying Night on Thursday, Aug. 7 when the first eight rows of Championship Saturday for the 64th NOS Energy Drink Knoxville Nationals presented by Casey’s will be finalized. For tickets, CLICK HERE.

If you can’t make it to the track, catch every lap live on DIRTVision.