NASCAR’s Office of Communications Contact: Michael Harvey Phone: 980-444-8852 Email: [email protected] FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – Wednesday, April 1, 2020 Michael Cosey Jr. earns first MENCS victory at Martinsville MARTINSVILLE, Va. – Michael Cosey Jr. won the 2019 STP 500 at Martinsville Speedway. He captured his first Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series victory following a fierce battle with Daniel Suarez in the closing laps. Cosey accomplished the feat in only his sixth career start which makes him the fifth fastest to ever accomplish that feat in NASCAR’s modern era. Cosey has been a frequent competitor on the NASCAR scene over the past few years. He has often been considered a journeyman of sorts. Throughout his relatively young NASCAR career, he has gotten various hotseat offers with teams, but he has always chosen to do it his own way and race for his own team. That is why no one was surprised when Cosey sold everything and brought his team, Goldmine Racing, to the top level of motorsports in 2019. Cosey locked down a full season deal with Ally Bank and brought his now infamous #99 to the Cup Series. Cosey is both a former Xtreme Dirt Tour and Gander Outdoors Truck Series champion and barely missed out on transferring to the Xfinity Series Championship Four after an untimely caution ended his bid for a win at Texas. Entering Martinsville, Cosey has had a fairly strong rookie season to this point. He finished 3rd in his first Daytona 500 and was leading the points following a strong top-10 at Atlanta. His progress had slowed with three consecutive finishes of 19th or worse, but that was all forgotten about as the series was heading to the oldest track on the circuit, Martinsville. Cosey has been known as a short track ace throughout his career and that certainly showed early on. He finished a respectable 8th in Stage 1 and 9th in Stage 2. The third and final stage is when Cosey would finally make his move to the front. Cosey stayed out following the end of Stage 2 and held the lead for most of the remaining laps after various run-ins with Chip Ganassi Racing drivers Kurt Busch and Kyle Larson as well as Stewart-Haas Racing’s Daniel Suarez. When the checkered flag flied it was Cosey claiming the victory and celebrating in victory lane. When asked about the magnitude of this victory, Cosey Jr said, “Is there a better place to win than Martinsville? I won this huge grandfather clock; we are practically locked into the Playoffs and it is now time to celebrate!” The Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series will head to Fort Worth, Texas and the Texas Motor Speedway as NASCAR’s top stars try to tackle the 1.5 mile quad-oval with the hopes of claiming victory and getting to wear the infamous cowboy hat and shoot those two six shooters in victory lane. Located in Hagerstown, Md., Goldmine Racing has quickly become a race team on the rise. After claiming championships in both the Xtreme Dirt Tour and NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series along with wins in all four of NASCAR’s top divisions, they have left their mark in NASCAR’s history and are here to stay. With help from Ally Bank along with the drive and determination of their owner and Cup rookie Michael Cosey Jr, they are poised to make a run at the title in their maiden campaign. #### .