Three consecutive wins, five top-five finishes, and a championship.
That was Matt Cox’s stat line during Speed Week 2026 at Southern National following to conclusion of Saturday’s finale.
Cox started on the pole of Saturday afternoon’s race, but surrendered the lead in the opening laps to Michael Fose. Fose held off Cox throughout the early portion of Saturday’s 100 lap race.
“We fired off and we kind of wanted to ride,” Cox said. “He pushed us hard there at the beginning, was kind of wanting to run hard. We didn’t want to run that hard, so I stuck my hand out the window down the backstretch and let him go. We just fell in line, rode, and I could tell he was on the right rear pretty hard it looked like and was slipping kind of bad up off the corner, so we rode.”
Then, on lap 43, Cox made the move, passing Fose to retake the lead and driving away for his third consecutive win in an otherwise procedural race.
“We let the air pressures get up. We caught up to lapped traffic, and I wanted to get in clean air before we got to them, so we decided to pick it up and I got to him and take the race lead and once we did that, we were kind of able to drive off and maintain and keep the tires on it. It’s a really big day for us to get three wins in a row now. Hats off to all the people who make this possible, I couldn’t do it without them. It’s good momentum for our team.”
Cox, who is the defending I-95 Showdown champion, will be back at Southern National Motorsports Park when the Showdown returns on Saturday, April 4. The second race of the I-95 Showdown was contested on Wednesday in the Jerry Moody Memorial, which was won by Landen Lewis. Cox finished third in the race – his worst result of Speed Week 2026.
Dylan Newsome passed Fose to take the runner-up spot on the race’s 66th lap. Fose finished third. Matthew Laprade was able to shake off Friday night’s accident to finish in fourth while John Goin rounded out the top five.
Unofficial Results
- Matt Cox
- Dylan Newsome
- Michael Fose
- Matthew Laprade
- John Goin
- Chase Burgeson
- Caleb Johnson
- Wyatt Miller
- Deac McCaskill
- Clay Jones
- Delaney Gray
