By T.J. Buffenbarger
KNOXVILLE, IA (August 15, 2026) – Defending Knoxville Nationals champion Ryan Timms started his attempt to rally his way into the finale of the 65th NOS Energy Drink Knoxville Nationals presented by Casey’s by winning the C-Main event.
Timms and Kerry Madsen started on the front row for the 15-lap event with Madsen taking the lead at the start. Before one lap could be completed when the caution flag appeared when Levi Hillier and Kelby Watt ended up into the wall between turns three and four.
Both Hillier and Watt’s car were taken to the work area, but neither were able to make repairs in time for the restart.
The second attempt to start the C-Main was short lived when Josh Schneiderman got up into the cushion and turned over. Schneiderman exited the car under his own power, but the car suffered too much damage to continue.
The third start to the C-Main was successful with Ryan Timms pulling into the lead. Timms had built up a 1.651 second lead when he caught the back of the field when the caution flag appeared for Rees Moran slowing coming out of turn for. Moran was unable to restart.
Timms continued to lead during the restart while Justin Peck made a daring pass of Sam Hafertepe Jr. for third position through turns one and two during the restart.
Madsen briefly started to close in on Timms in slower traffic, but Timms quickly disposed the slow cars to open a 1.931 second lead at the finish. Madsen, Peck, and Hafertepe transferred to the B-Main event.
65th NOS Energy Drink Knoxville Nationals presented by Casey’s
World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series
Knoxville Raceway
Knoxville, Iowa
Saturday, August 15, 2026
C-Main (15 Laps)
1. 10-Ryan Timms[1]
2. 55-Kerry Madsen[2]
3. 26-Justin Peck[3]
4. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr[4]
5. 9R-Chase Randall[5]
6. 21H-Brady Bacon[8]
7. 22-Riley Goodno[7]
8. 9P-Daison Pursley[6]
9. 15-Donny Schatz[11]
10. 53-Jack Dover[9]
11. 51-Steven Snyder Jr[12]
12. 12X-Landon Crawley[16]
13. 09-Matt Juhl[17]
14. 7S-Chris Windom[14]
15. 33W-Cap Henry[22]
16. 11N-Darin Naida[21]
17. 6-Kasey Jedrzejek[23]
18. 40-Clint Garner[24]
19. 2M-JJ Hickle[18]
20. 45X-Rees Moran[15]
21. 49-Josh Schneiderman[10]
22. 1K-Kelby Watt[19]
23. 26R-Levi Hillier[20]
24. 27-Carson McCarl[13]