The very first people to congratulate Ryan Timms on his unassailable and historic march to Knoxville Nationals victory lane Saturday at Knoxville Raceway wasn’t anyone from his family nor the team.

Kyle Larson and David Gravel, the juggernaut forces of the Sprint Car world that many thought would end up in Timms’s triumphant position, beat the 18-year-old’s closest supporters to the other side of the scales. Larson, the three-time Knoxville Nationals champ, was the first to commend Timms’s masterful drive to Sprint Car immortality.

Gravel, the 2019 champ and Saturday’s hard-charger from 21st-to-third, had been the second.

“It was awesome, two guys that I look up to a ton and two guys that are at the top of the sport. So to have them come congratulate me is pretty awesome,” Timms said in the post-race press conference. "Just this whole experience is awesome, I can’t believe I won the Knoxville Nationals. It’s unreal.”

Needless to say, if Timms hadn’t yet earned the respect from his closest competitors — some of whom, like Larson and Gravel, he considers his role models — he absolutely did so Saturday. It was an unprecedented victory on numerous fronts, one reason being he's the first Knoxville weekly racer to win the Nationals since Doug Wolfgang in 1977.

Most impressively, Timms is the youngest Nationals winner in Sprint Car racing’s modern era — which is often correlated with the formation of the World of Outlaws in 1978. But at 18 years, nine months old, Kenny Weld still holds the overall record as the youngest-ever Nationals champ in 1964.

Timms, born Aug. 26 as opposed to Weld’s birthday Nov. 4, winds up two months shy of the all-time youngest mark, but ultimately the Nationals hasn’t seen a teenager win since — in 61 years.

WATCH:  From his blue collar background to hiring Ryan Timms, car owner Shane Liebig shares the ultra-rewarding journey to winning the 2025 Knoxville Nationals.

And when Timms’s maiden Nationals victory is stacked up against the sport’s immortals, it’s doubly impressive: Steve Kinser was 26 when he won his first of 12 Nationals in 1980. Donny Schatz was 29 when he won his first of 11 Nationals in 2006. Doug Wolfgang, 25, when he won his first of five Nationals in 1977. Danny Lasoski, 39, when he won his first of four Nationals in 1998. Kyle Larson, 31, when he won his first of three Nationals in 2023. Mark Kinser, 32, when he won his first of three Nationals in 1996. Weld, 18, when he won his first of four Nationals in 1964.

“Ryan doesn’t realize what he did here today, being high-point guy, winning every lap … it is hard to do what he did,” Gravel said in the post-race press conference. “To qualify like he did; in the heat race, get that job done, and do a great job in the feature, putting 50 laps together. I know Kyle (Larson) won the last couple Nationals, won every lap, but that’s not easy to do.

“He could’ve easily choked, (Timms), but he did not. That shows his poise. Racing here weekly, these guys have a good package, and you can see when the track was a certain way, they were the fastest car by far.”

Timms never got passed at the Nationals all week long, going from eighth to the lead on Wednesday’s qualifying in 10 laps and then never challenged in Saturday’s finale, not even marginally. Overall, Timms kept a two-plus-second lead for 30 of 50 laps Saturday and a three-plus-second lead for 16 laps.

Running second for 47 laps, Carson Macedo had the best shot of anyone at competing with Timms. But even then, the Jason Johnson Racing driver felt powerless in Timms’s wake.

“I don’t know really, I think he was just really fast,” Macedo said when asked what it could’e taken for him to keep up with Timms. “Like, I feel like, he was almost a straightaway ahead of me in just a few laps after every start. I feel like I was getting better starts than him off the line, like off the launch, but when we’d leave turn two, he was fast. I felt like I had a pretty decent car.

“I feel like (crew chief) Philip (Dietz) made some adjustments after the break that changed our balance a little bit, and I was OK before that last caution (with four laps left), and I just really cost after that last caution. I tried to do all I could to be as close as I could to Timms at the cone so I had a shot into Turn 1, but I probably got a little bit too aggressive with the throttle” where he slipped from second to fourth over the final three laps.

Abreu and Schuchart, who started third and finished fifth, both laud Timms’s Shane Liebig-owned team for giving the teenaged driver a rocket-ship to take flight in.

“The 10 guys have done an unbelievable job getting their car prepped right,” Abreu said. “When you get into that position to get our front and log laps, Ryan can’t see in his rearview mirror, but it was a dogfight back there to get to those podium spots.

“Congratulations to Ryan, what an incredible career. I just sit back and watch his success with the team that’s put together for him, you can see in those guys’ eyes the belief they have in him and for him just to drive a Cadillac around there is pretty cool to watch.”

Assessing what separated Timms from the rest, Schuchart surmised that “nobody was catching them” and that half-miles have been the Liebig team’s bread and butter all year long.

“He looked really good in his qualifying night, I didn’t really get to race with him tonight,” Schuchart said. “He was just gone. I feel like his car sat on the left-rear hard, like the way it does at a lot of bigger racetracks. They seem to struggle at a lot of smaller tracks, but any of the half-miles, man, that car just rips. Ryan does a really good job with it.”

Among other notable figures that praised Timms in the public eye were six-time Knoxville Raceway track champ and three-time Nationals runner-up Brian Brown, who took a good few minutes to congratulate Timms in victory lane, an interaction that ended in a seemingly meaningful embrace.

NASCAR star Denny Hamlin even shouted-out the 18-year-old on X, posting that Saturday was an “impressive win by Timms.” When he found out Hamlin commended him, Timms's eyes bulged and, without it sounding cliche, his jaw truly dropped.

“It’s sinking in for sure. It’s still unbelievable. The top guys in the sport coming to congratulate me, it makes me feel really good," Timms said. "It says a lot about those guys. I can’t believe it. It’s unbelievable.”

Impressive win by Timms. How bout that run by DG2? Sheesh. #KnoxvilleNationals

— Denny Hamlin (@dennyhamlin) August 10, 2025