Rico Abreu Outduels Ryan Timms Late to Win 360 Knoxville Nationals Friday Prelim
Rico Abreu and Ryan Timms have been two of the best at Knoxville Raceway in 2025. With four wins apiece, it was only fitting the two met at the head of the field during Friday’s main event and put on a show in a battle for 360 Sprint Car supremacy.
Throughout the 20-lap Feature, the two titans swapped the lead multiple times, battling back-and-forth, low-groove to high-groove, slidejob-on-slidejob. In the end, Abreu’s skill behind the wheel and veteran-level experience overpowered the youthful Timms, making the race-winning pass for the lead on Lap 17 and pulling away on the final restart to bank his first career preliminary Feature win in the Xtream Powered by Mediacom 360 Knoxville Nationals presented by Great Southern Bank.
“I was really trying to get the middle to bottom working, and when we caught traffic, it really sped everything up,” Abreu, of St. Helena, CA, said. “I was able to float the middle through a couple lapped cars, and punching through that air was a big advantage when [Timms] got back by me and we caught traffic and he had to move around again.
“It just comes with experience and being in those circumstances the last few years of my career where I really tried to understand those critical positions.”
The win counts as Abreu’s first in 360 Nationals competition in only his second preliminary Feature start. The $3,000 check also comes with his third career American Sprint Car Series Feature win tally and first since March 2014.
Abreu began his charge to the front from fifth on the starting grid. By Lap 8, he had already moved into the runner-up spot, trailing Timms by slightly over a second. But a slowing Blake Hahn down the backstretch brought out the caution flag and put Abreu directly on Timms’ rear bumper for the restart.
The field raced into Turn 1 and Abreu wasted no time, diving underneath Timms and riding the middle lane though Turn 2 to muster the speed he needed to complete the pass. It wasn’t two laps later that Timms returned the favor with a pass down low through Turns 1 and 2, and another trading of the top spot between the two through Turns 3 and 4.
“I was trying to figure out what lane he ran in (Turns) 1 and 2, and I was picking up on that pretty quickly throughout that next lap,” Abreu said. “I knew I just needed to keep my cool until we caught traffic again because [Timms] was setting such a torrid pace. I wasn’t good enough to just run him down and pass him. I just kept working the middle, working the middle, and I could kinda stay with his pace and shorten the track up.”
Once Timms made the effort to get back by Abreu, he went back to his favored lane around the top side of the historic 1/2-mile oval and slightly reopened a gap out front.
“I knew once we could get rolling around the top side and get my momentum up, it was definitely the preferred line,” Timms said. “I normally make less mistakes up top, so I just got up there as quick as I could.”
Now back in second, Abreu locked his sights on the Liebig Motorsports No. 10, found his speed in the middle lane around the track, and caught Timms once more as the race entered its final laps.
“In my position, when you’re hunting somebody, just not overdriving the car and allowing the race to kinda play out and see where it ends up in your hands,” Abreu said. “I really like crucially getting to lapped traffic and dissecting cars as we go.”
Abreu then took a full charge of momentum with him as he dove to the bottom in Turn 3 on Lap 17, sliding up across the nose of Timms and nearly making contact out of Turn 4 to regain the lead.
“I was really just trying to air-block him at the end of the day where I could still have the ability to turn back down and run down the hill and kinda block his run into (Turn) 1,” Abreu said. “I knew he was making a lot of steam on the top, but when you get in those positions, you have to get the car into turbulence where it’ll roll [the other driver] over and not allow him to make as much speed.”
As soon as the leaders got back to the flag stand, the caution flag waved once more. But Abreu was ready for the restart, gapping the field immediately and bringing the field back around to the checkered flag to seal the victory.
Timms, a winner of four 410 Sprint Car Features in weekly competition at Knoxville so far this year, has made a great pairing with car owner Shane Liebig this season with a 410c.i. engine under the hood. However, Timms has noticed the differences between the 410 and the 360 and adjusted to get the most out of his car.
“I feel like when it comes to going across the middle of the racetrack in the 360, it’s almost not as planted in the ground,” Timms said. “That’s really been the only adjustment or thing I’ve needed to figure out a little bit better.”
“All the 410 races that we’ve done here help me everywhere I go, no matter 360 or 410, no matter what the track is.”
Parker Price-Miller crossed the finish line third after an evening of ups-and-downs — turning the second-fastest lap in Qualifying, then being penalized in his Heat Race for jumping the original start but still recovering to earn a transfer spot into the main event. Sawyer Phillips finished fourth while Clint Garner completed the top five.
Timms turned the fastest lap in WEDG High Performance Karts Hot Laps at 16.004 seconds.
Carson McCarl earned the Quick Time honors for his top Qualifying lap of 16.020 seconds.
Heats were won by Jack Dover, Jake Bubak, Camren Sorrels, Tyler Lee and Chase Dietz.
The Smith Titanium Last Chance Showdown was won by Giovanni Scelzi.
UP NEXT
The 360 Nationals finale hits Knoxville Raceway on Saturday, Aug. 2, starting with lower mains, followed by the 30-lap, $20,000-to-win main event. Tickets for the event are on sale in advance at KnoxvilleRaceway.com or at the gate on race day. If you can’t be there, stream every lap live on DIRTVision.
FEATURE RESULTS (view all results)
360 A Feature (20 Laps): 1. 24R-Rico Abreu[5]; 2. 10-Ryan Timms[4]; 3. 71P-Parker Price Miller[7]; 4. 4-Cameron Martin[1]; 5. 27-Carson McCarl[8]; 6. 24-Terry McCarl[2]; 7. 21-Brian Brown[9]; 8. 40G-Clint Garner[6]; 9. 7BC-Giovanni Scelzi[21]; 10. 27B-Jake Bubak[13]; 11. 1TZ-Tasker Phillips[24]; 12. 01-Colby Copeland[16]; 13. 03-Jack Dover[17]; 14. 9-Kasey Kahne[14]; 15. 3P-Sawyer Phillips[23]; 16. 2JR-Kelly Miller[3]; 17. 36-Jason Martin[10]; 18. 25-Tim Kaeding[11]; 19. 7-Tyler Lee[19]; 20. 14T-Brooke Tatnell[15]; 21. 23-Chase Dietz[20]; 22. 157-Cam Sorrels[18]; 23. 22-Riley Goodno[22]; 24. 52-Blake Hahn[12]
