Ryan Timms was not happy with Kyle Larson’s race-winning pass in the Front Row Challenge at Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa.
With 5 laps to go, Larson sent his car into the three and then slid up in front of Timms and over his nose wing to get the lead. Larson would then quickly pull away from Timms and sail to the win over the final five laps. Meanwhile, Timms would get passed by Corey Day on the final lap of the race to finish in third.
In his podium interview with FloRacing, Timms said, “I went into 3 there, I knew I was screwing up. I figured he might be gaining on me and just kept doing what I did every lap. And went in there, I seen him coming up. Initially, I was going to try and drive around it and I realized he wasn’t giving me any room. I lifted, slammed on the brakes, tried to turn it, and he still just ran right over me. He’s a piece of [crap]. It is what it is. I’ll remember it. And that’s that.”
He later added, “I have to watch the video, really. But I really felt like I did everything in my power to lift and still the nose wing is completely trampled. It is what it is.”
😬 @RyanTimms_5T shares his thoughts after contact with @KyleLarsonRacin battling for win in Osky #FrontRowChallenge. pic.twitter.com/qAwnGOya1C
— FloRacing (@FloRacing) August 11, 2026
Timms shared additional comments with Connor Ferguson of Always Race Day telling him, “I’m very open-minded about these situations. I’ve done dirty things before. I know it’s really not anyone’s intention. I’m just calling it how I see it. He went in there and I seen him coming up and-. Anytime you get slid you initially for maybe a second gauge it if you can drive around it. I realized I couldn’t drive around it. And I got completely out of the gas, slammed on the brakes as hard as I could, and still got hit.”
“I just don’t think there was any chance no matter what I did, no matter what happened, I don’t think there was any chance of it clearing,” he continued. “It’s unfortunate, but it’s part of racing.”
Later in the interview Timms did clarify that he does not plan on wrecking Larson the next time they are on the track together, “Obviously, I’m not going to just go wreck him the next time I’m around him, but you race people how you get raced and race them hard. So you race me hard, we race each other hard, but, I mean, there really just wasn’t a chance. I haven’t watched the video so my opinion could change after.”
Speaking to Jeremy Elliott of SprintCarUnlimited, Timms also shared, “I knew Kyle was behind me. I felt like I really did just fine up until there the few laps before he slid me and then I started getting tight on the cushion, hitting the cushion, getting tight on it, kind of in both corners, but mainly in 3. And then allowed him to get a run on me and then he slid me.”
On what specifically happened with the slider, Timms said, “I’m very open-minded when it comes to these things and I’m not one to just throw a guy under the bus. I’ve done the same stuff. It’s part of it, really. At the end of the day it was a bad slide job and it didn’t have a single chance of clearing. We both went in there. The minute I saw him coming up, I got off the gas completely and jammed on the brakes as hard as I could and he still took my front end out. Like I said, there was just no chance of it clearing.”
“It’s a racing deal,” Timms added. “Unfortunately, it’s just part of racing. It’s the way it goes.”
He then reiterated that he will race Larson differently the next time, “For sure. I mean, I’m not going to just blatantly junk him. For sure, you race guys how they race you.”
Timms went on to reveal that he and his team would have lost the race anyway without Larson’s slider because he ran out of gas in the closing laps, “We actually ran out of fuel the last two to three laps there. Coming across the line I didn’t have any power, just rolled across the line. So at the end of the day I would have lost anyway, but it’s just the principle of it.”
“When he took the nose wing out, I haven’t look at it. I don’t think it tore anything on the front end actually, but it felt completely-. Just no steering at all. Like just no weight on the front end. I think something had to be bent ’cause it didn’t feel just like I didn’t have a nose wing. It felt like something was in the steering-. Was driving, steering kind of funky. … It took all the weight off my front end. If I would have went up against the cushion, there’s no way I was going to be able to turn off of it.”
Timms will be back in action on Wednesday night to kick off the Knoxville Nationals. Wednesday and Thursday night of the Knoxville Nationals are qualifying nights and will feature hot laps, qualifying, heat races, C-Main, B-Main, and a 25-lap A-Main feature. Only the top 50 qualifiers advance to the heat races.
The top 8 positions in the heats are inverted. They are inverted based on points earned from qualifying. The top four finishers in each heat will lock themselves into the A-Main. Fifth through eighth will go to the B-Main, while positions 9-10 go to the C-Main.
In the C-Main, the top four finishers go to the back of the B. Similarly, the top four finishers in the B advance to the tail of the A. The A Main will also feature an invert. The top 8 are inverted.
The top 16 teams in points from Wednesday and Thursday lock themselves into Saturday’s feature. Teams in 17th through 26th in points lock themselves into the first 10 positions of Saturday’s B Main. The rest of the field races on Friday night.
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