By T.J. Buffenbarger
KNOXVILLE, IA (August 7, 2025) — Ryan Timms is regarded as one of the most talented young stars in the sport. Teaming up with Liebig Motorsports during the off season has elevated his sprint car performance that culminated in Wednesday night’s victory at the Knoxville Nationals, which is something Timms thought he was capable of, but didn’t think would occur until later in his career.
“The biggest difference is just a faster race car,” said Timms. “It qualifies really well and that’s 90% of your night in Knoxville. Once we can get in a good spot then it’s it all up to me, and that’s really all I can ask for. It’s been great pairing up with Shane (Liebig) and the whole team, and we’ve had a ton of speed. And to be standing here, sitting here, is unbelievable. I could see myself winning a Knoxville preliminary night, maybe a little further into the future. I didn’t think it happened quite so soon, but it’s just really awesome and really happy to be sitting here.
Timms was one of only two of the top 10 qualifiers to transfer through his heat race on Wednesday and was equally adept in the feature moving from eighth to third position on the opening circuit.
“There’s very few nights where I don’t have a good race car here,” said Timms of the Liebig entry. “It makes my job a lot easier. Qualifying is the biggest deal. We were able to get through that well. Then starting eighth in a heat race I knew I could go forward and pass cars. I didn’t think I was going to get to fourth, but we were able to start on the outside and the inside line kind of got bottled up on the first corner and was able to follow Sheldon (Haudenschild) right around the top and get past two cars. From there it was just picking, trying to pick guys off one by one, in the A-Feature, kind of the same deal.”
Along with some traveling, Timms spent a considerable amount of time racing at Knoxville this year. During the weekly program the heat races include a six car inversion, which Timms found himself towards the back of due to his qualifying prowess. Timms made the Knoxville Nationals heat race appear like just another Saturday night at the Marion County Fairgrounds for him.
“It definitely helps,” Timms said of the weekly inversion. “We raced somewhere around eight to 10 races before (The Nationals) this year and every night we qualify good well enough to start fourth, fifth or sixth. Every heat race we run here you have to start far back and pass some cars, so it doesn’t hurt for sure. Starting on the outside is a big plus here. I feel like the inside line just gets so bottled up all the time. It’s when you have that open track up top, it makes your job a lot easier.”
Other notes
• Justin Peck and the Rudeen Racing team were utilizing a new Ford engine package during Wednesday’s preliminary program. While Peck’s performance likely ran well enough to make Saturday’s feature, or close to it, getting a feel for the new package was still a work in progress.
“We got brought a new Ford package that’s been different than what we have been running,” said Peck. “I don’t know if we geared wrong, I don’t know if I felt it wrong, but it just didn’t seem to have the smoke that we needed, like it did earlier in the night, but I’m really happy with our performance.”
Peck’s podium was a nice recovery after having issues during his qualifying effort and starting the night off with some changes of the car made after encountering a slick racetrack Sunday during the Capitani Classic.
“The Cappy kind of scared us. It was pretty slick, and we were super free for that,” said Peck. “So, we went into today quite a bit tighter than we normally would be I think we were just a little too snug there for qualifying. I didn’t put a single good lap together either. I jumped the curb on the first lap and one and two, then stuck the bottom and three and four, and then went down and hooked the inside berm on the second lap and then completely whiffed on the bottom of three and four. I wish I could have those two laps back.”
• Sheldon Haudenschild and his race team decided after passing on running the Capitani Classic in past years decided to participate this year. Haudenschild credited the track time for his third-place performance on Wednesday.
“We haven’t ran the Cappy in a couple of years. I didn’t have the best result, but we got a little better feel for myself, especially just qualifying,” said Haudenschild. “I think that was the whole thing. I was confident to qualify tonight. I think now how this format is being on the third row of the heat is a whole lot better, especially starting sixth. It kind of just opens you up. Took it baby steps at a time, got our qualifying lap in, then worked on our heat race, and went from there and felt really comfortable in that feature.”
• Garet Williamson appeared to be in trouble in his heat race after getting sideways on the initial start. Williamson was able to recover to transfer to the feature. Afterwards the team found a broken steering gear, which they were able to repair and rallied for a fourth-place finish to secure a likely spot in Saturday’s A-Main.
• After the B-Main on Wednesday’s program six of the top 10 qualifiers were able to make the feature event. When compared to the previous two years seven of the top 10 made the feature in 2024 while six made the feature on Wednesday night in 2023.