By T.J. Buffenbarger
KNOXVILLE, IA (August 11, 2026) — The Knoxville Raceway hosted a media event on Tuesday leading into the 65th NOS Energy Drink Knoxville Nationals presented by Casey’s with Rico Abreu, Sheldon Haudenschild, David Gravel, Brian Brown, and Ryan Timms each taking some time idividually with the media. Here are some highlights from the discussions during that event.
• Rico Abreu comes into the Knoxville Nationals with the strongest performances during the biggest races of the year with a pair of second place finishes in 2025 and 2026 at Eldora Speedway for the Kings Royal and a runner up finish at last year’s Knoxville Nationals.
Part of that improvement is Abreu working on what he does in race to put himself in a better position for success in the major events.
“We’ve worked really hard at it, said Abreu of making sure his team is ready for the sport’s biggest moments. “I’ve been racing with Ricky Warner for five years now and just for ourselves to understand kind of what it takes to put us in position. I’ve really tried to focus in on my craft as a race car driver, studying what I need to do better out on the racetrack, and just those little detail things.
Abreu has taken Warner’s advice to heart on how to work and adjust what he does in the race to put himself in a better position to capitalize on winning.
“What Ricky’s taught me is in the moments to separate yourself. I think the big things are the patience mid race, picking the pace up when you need to, and not wearing your equipment out. As you know these races are a little bit longer than our average seasonal races. So, you have to understand pace wise mid race and being there at the end of the race”
Another part of Abreu’s preparation is approaching the formats properly for the major events at Eldora and Knoxville, which is considerably different than what is contested at a standard High Limit Racing or World of Outlaws program.
“One thing about the Nationals and the Kings Royal is the uniqueness in the formats that we don’t race normally. It just puts you in a position that you have to actually race in the heat races, and those are big steps and turning points in these great events. So, for me, it’s going to be getting through these heat races and getting qualified, and then that’ll put us in position for Saturday.”
For now though Abreu is already looking forward to his preliminary night, taking each part of the night one segment at a time.
“I think my thing is just focusing on hot laps right now, and then you work on qualifying right after that, and working with my team and keeping everybody together and sane,” said Abreu about the mental challenges of sprint car racing and events like the Knoxville Nationals in particular. “I think that that that’s the hardest part of this whole sport is you know when things don’t go as expected, not allowing things to unravel, and I’ve really just worked on my mental aspect in in those positions and allow the guy upstairs to let things play out.”
• Brian Brown has seen a recent uptick in performance coming into the Knoxville Nationals. Brown credits a trip to Eldora in July for the Kings Royal helping his team to find some speed.
“I feel like our car’s gotten a little bit better probably ever since we went to the Kings Royal. Some of the same things we were fighting here we fought there the first couple days,” said Brown of their trip east to Eldora. “I think sometimes when you get outside of this place, I am more susceptible to try something versus a lot of times when I get here, we just stay in our box. We went there and learned some things. Then when we came back it felt pretty good. So, have been on that same platform for the last two, three weeks, which is great.”
Brown has been doing a multitude of different things to try a help his wrist, which was injured in a crash at last year’s Knoxville Nationals.
“It’s more in my forearm, nerves and tendons. Whereas the night goes on, it just gets tighter. What would be like arm pump for a motocross guy or whatever. By the time the A-Main comes out about 10-15 laps in, or even earlier in that, I’ve got to go down the straightaway and take my hand off the wheel to keep it keep it moving. Then as the feature ends, I got to take my right hand and peel my left hand off the wheel, so it just makes it uncomfortable.”
Brown has tried a multitude of remedies for his arm, describing his home as a “Amazon warehouse” with all the various things he’s tried to make the situation better.
“I’ve been doing dry needling the last couple weeks,” said Brown of trying to make his wrist situation better. “That’s definitely helped, but we’re to the time of the year where there are no excuses. Who cares what about your arm? It’s either perform or don’t, and we’re here to perform.”
• As for going to the outside of J.J. Hickle in last year’s Knoxville Nationals heat race that triggered the crash that injured him last year, Brown has no regrets on making that decision.
“That was a very high risk but had a very high reward if it worked out in my favor, and it didn’t,” said Brown. “If it worked out, you’re probably on the first row or two of the Knoxville Nationals come Saturday. This is a time of the year where it’s very high risk and very high reward, and I would do it all over again today to have that opportunity for that move to work. “
• Sheldon Haudenschild’s new surroundings with KCP Racing has produced an upturn in performance during the 2026 season. Seven feature wins this year nearly doubles his total from 2025 and he has surpassed his total of top five finishes by three with 32 so far this year.
For the 2026 Knoxville Nationals, Haudenschild is racing for the “home team” of sorts with KCP’s shop and many of their partners being from the area surrounding Knoxville, Iowa.
For Haudenschild, who is generally very laid back, says it does not cause any additional pressure going into the Knoxville Nationals and seems to even embrace having so many partners being able to see him compete at the biggest stage in the sport.
“No, I don’t think so,” Haudenschild said about additional pressure by having so many team supporters in the area. “We had a good team dinner last night and these guys are really chill and fun to be around. Obviously, we want to do good, but you always want to do good no matter what. I think how this team operates, they know we’re fast and we want to do good and they don’t really put any extra pressure on us.
“We’ve only got to race here a couple times, and it is cool. After the feature a whole group of guys will come down and they hang out in the suite and watch all night. I don’t think there is any extra pressure but obviously want to do good for them just being in their hometown.”
One thing that doesn’t appear to be changing is Haudenschild having a race car that will make a run at the best appearing car award at Nationals.
“We’ve got a sick race car coming out,” said Haudenschild with a smile. “I got my helmet yesterday. Everything’s coming together nice. There is a crew going to go to the shop and film today for what we got going on. It’s cool, and I’m excited. I can’t give away too much. But we’ll find out on Wednesday morning.”
• David Gravel went into some depth about some of the fan reaction to him being at the top of the sport. When I asked if he enjoys leaning into playing the “black hat” role in the sport,
I’ve always had an edge to myself,” said Gravel of his responses to some of the jeers when he is introduced, “I’ve always been a small guy, I played sports my whole life, and you know, and always you know for myself. So, no matter what, I’m going to not take any shit from people, you know what I mean?”
“You want to want to hear those boos after the races to prove them wrong. “Look at the villain role with Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin, or Sammy Swindell. Steve Kinser. I felt like still got cheered more than he got booed, and I know he wasn’t the nicest on the racetrack, but it seemed like Sammy maybe what he said after the races made people boo more. But yeah, I mean it’s part of it. I love competition, and I’m here to compete and just part of my nature.”
• While Brian Brown was on the stage Ryan Timms walked into the back of the room. Brown was quick to remark, “Did anything interesting happen last night at Osky?” in response to Timms and Kyle Larson’s verbal barbs that were exchanged after Larson made contact with Timms front end while racing for the lead, which garnered a chuckle out of the people on hand.
• Defending Knoxville Nationals champion Ryan Timms said his team will bring back the same engine they won the event with in 2026. Timms’ car owner Shane Leibig wanted to try and run the same car at the Nationals, but Timms “wanted to hang that thing up on the wall,” which drew some laughter from the media members. Leibig and Timms have been trying different car and engine combinations all season before settling on their choice for the week’s activities.