The most prestigious event in Sprint Car racing begins Wednesday night with the first of two qualifying nights for the 2026 NOS Energy Drink Knoxville Nationals presented by Casey's at Knoxville Raceway. 

Throughout the night, we'll have lineups, results and updates posted in this blog-style notebook. Watch the Knoxville Nationals all week long on DIRTVision.

• Understanding The Knoxville Nationals Format
• Inside Sheldon Haudenschild's Soaring Confidence At The Knoxville Nationals
• Breaking Down Knoxville Nationals Wednesday Qualifying Night Roster
• Inside Kyle Larson, Ryan Timms' Clash In The Front Row Challenge
• Brad Sweet Explains Why He's Stepping Away From the Driver's Seat

A-Main Results: Knoxville Nationals Wednesday

A-Main Lineup: Knoxville Nationals Wednesday

B-Main Lineup: Knoxville Nationals Wednesday

Heat 5 Recap: Knoxville Nationals Wednesday

• Motivated to rebound from a lackluster qualifying run, Ryan Timms powered to the final heat win from the fourth-starting spot — clearing runner-up Jack Dover by nearly six seconds.
• Darin Naida (from second) and Cole Macedo (from sixth) rounded out the transfers.
• Corey Day couldn't transfer from Row 4, his heat race stalling out in sixth, while Gio Scelzi couldn't advance from the fifth-starting spot.

Heat 4 Recap: Knoxville Nationals Wednesday

• Brock Zearfoss joined Riley Goodno as the lone drivers to win their heat from the pole as the Jonestown, Pa., native topped seventh-starting Sheldon Haudenschild by a comfy 2.7 seconds. Along with Haudenschild — Chase Dietz was on the move, finishing third from sixth. 
• Zearfoss did have to change engines following his heat victory as his No. 17GP went up in smoke upon taking the checkers.
• Rees Moran held onto the final transfer from second.
• David Gravel couldn't join Haudenschild and Dietz as the fastest drivers from qualifying to transfer. The Big Game Motorsports driver fell a half second shy of the final transfer.
• Haudenschild's seventh-to-second charge should start him seventh in the 25-lap A-main.

Heat 3 Recap: Knoxville Nationals Wednesday

• In the first caution-free heat of the night, Danny Sams III cruised to victory by more a second over sixth-starting Justin Henderson — Christopher Thram (from the pole) and Jace Park (from fourth) transfer.
• The fastest two drivers in the heat — Emerson Axsom and Sam Hafertepe Jr. — finished fifth and seventh, respectively.

Heat 2 Recap: Knoxville Nationals Wednesday

• Fifth-starting Jamie Ball slowed on the initial start with an apparent mechanical failure. He couldn't continue.
• The fastest three qualifiers in the heat — Rico Abreu, Danny Dietrich and Justin Peck — all didn't transfer. Abreu finished fifth from eighth, Peck sixth from sixth, and Dietrich seventh from seventh. They'll have to mount B-main comebacks.
• Knoxville local Riley Goodno held on from the pole to win the second heat by one second over fourth-starting Sye Lynch — while Sawyer Phillips and Jy Corbet transfer.

Heat 1 Recap: Knoxville Nationals Wednesday

• Lynton Jeffrey was penalized a row — from second to fourth — in the opening heat, moving Zach Hampton to second and Sammy Swindell to third.
• On the second attempt at the Heat 1 start, Sammy Swindell collided with Lynton Jeffrey battling for a transfer spot down the backstretch — triggering his golden-wrapped No. 1 barrel-rolling. In what's supposed to be his 50th and final Knoxville Nationals, the 1988 champ emerged OK but called the wreck "heartbreaking."
• James McFadden rolled from sixth to capture the opening heat by 2.5 seconds in commanding fashion. Zach Hampton (from third), Steven Snyder Jr. (from the pole) and eighth-starting Kasey Kahne transferred.
• Tanner Holmes pressured Kahne in the final laps for fourth, but couldn't grab the fourth and final transfer.

Knoxville Nationals Wednesday Heat Lineups

Knoxville Nationals Wednesday Qualifying Results

Qualifying Order All But Finalized

Looks like the qualifying order for Wednesday’s Knoxville nationals prelim night is all but finalized.

Roger Crockett the only on the entry list who has sent drawn a pill yet according to MyRacePass.@corey_day_, @DavidGravel, @DonnySchatz all going out early 👀 @Rico_Abreu… pic.twitter.com/JytR65kK2c

— Kyle McFadden (@ByKyleMcFadden) August 12, 2026

Analyzing The Last 10 Knoxville Nationals Champs' Prelim Nights

I dug into the paths to victory for the last 10 #KnoxvilleNationals champs — and there's a few common denominators:

💊 Pill draw is overrated?
⏱ Timing third through ninth seems the sweet spot
🔥 Passing four cars in heat race is key
🏆 No worse than second in prelim feature pic.twitter.com/pFCVer4WwQ

— Kyle McFadden (@ByKyleMcFadden) August 12, 2026

Reigning Champ Ryan Timms Unveils Paint Scheme

.@RyanTimms_5T and Liebig Motorsports roll out a new look for the #10!

Timms led all 50 laps of last year’s #NOSvilleNationals, and they topped last week’s #Xtream360Nats, Timms’ eighth @KnoxvilleRaces victory of 2026! pic.twitter.com/rBoK3QYgwK

— World of Outlaws (@WorldofOutlaws) August 12, 2026

Wednesday Knoxville Nationals Prerace Notes

• Donny Schatz believes the engine change following Sunday’s Capitani Classic time trials — which helped spur his 22nd-to-10th charge — gives him a boost entering Wednesday: “Not sure we found anything big, just found a motor that should get us in the game hopefully,” he told FloRacing.

• David Gravel is trying to rebound from three straight Knoxville Nationals A-main starts of 19th or worse and capture the long-awaited first Knoxville crown jewel for car owner Tod Quiring and Big Game Motorsports. 

• Six Knoxville Nationals rookies are entered Wednesday: Rees Moran, Jy Corbet, Joel Myers Jr., Darin Naida, Steven Snyder Jr. and Rodney Huband. Moran has a best finish of fifth in 15 Knoxville starts this year and is coming off a pair of top-10 runs with the Outlaws at Pevely, while Snyder makes his Nationals debut with Three Stooges Racing after charging from 16th to sixth in Monday’s Front Row Challenge.

• Justin Henderson is a dark horse worth watching in his 20th straight Nationals appearance. The six-time A-main qualifier finished seventh against the World of Outlaws at Knoxville earlier this season — his first Outlaw top-10 in three years — and was 16th in Sunday’s Capitani Classic.

• Kelby Watt is another potential sleeper after finishing 14th in Sunday's Capitani Classic. He's steadily progressing through Nationals week the last three years, going from ninth in the 2023 C-main to 11th in the 2024 D-main and 24th in last year’s B-main. 

• Chris Windom might be Wednesday’s most intriguing driver without a Nationals A-main start. He fell just one point short of the prelim lock-in last year and enters this week fresh off his first World of Outlaws victory Friday at Pevely and a 20th-to-14th Capitani Classic charge.

• Rico Abreu has put himself in prime position at the Nationals three straight years, starting second, sixth and seventh in the Nationals A-main. He finished a career-best second to Ryan Timms last year and just finished second Sunday to Kyle Larson in the Capitani Classic.

• Sheldon Haudenschild has quietly become one of the Knoxville Nationals’ most consistent performers, carrying six straight A-main top-10 finishes into Wednesday — seventh, 10th, eighth, 10th, ninth and 10th — despite never finishing better than seventh.

• Giovanni Scelzi has never missed the Knoxville Nationals A-main, qualifying in all seven of his attempts. The 2024 runner-up rallied from 14th to seventh last year, tying his largest charge in a Nationals finale, and isn't long removed from a $100,000 victory in the Bob Weikert Memorial at Port Royal.

• Sammy Swindell is making his 50th and final Knoxville Nationals appearance. The 1988 champion has qualified for 34 A-mains and owns 50 career Knoxville victories.

• Chase Dietz enters Wednesday as the winningest 410 Sprint Car driver in the country with 18 victories this season, though he's still chasing his first Knoxville Nationals A-main after finishing 20th in last year's B-main.

• Steven Snyder Jr. has quickly emerged as a driver to watch despite his lack of winged Knoxville experience. In his first four races with Three Stooges Racing, the Rising Sun, Md., youngster went 20th and 14th against the Outlaws at Pevely before charging from 16th to sixth and challenging James McFadden for a top-five finish in Monday’s Front Row Challenge.

2026 Knoxville Nationals Wednesday Qualifying Night Roster