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NASCAR Cup Series at Richmond Raceway
NASCAR Cup Series race at Richmond Raceway From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Stock car races in the NASCAR Cup Series have been held at Richmond Raceway in Richmond, Virginia since 1953.
A second race in March was also formerly held at the track from 1953 to 2024 until it was moved to Mexico for the 2025 season.
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The Cook Out 400 is an annual NASCAR Cup Series stock car race held at the Richmond Raceway in Richmond, Virginia. Austin Dillon is the defending winner of this event, having won it in 2025.
History
Starting in 1991, the race was moved from Sunday afternoon to Saturday night. It became the second night race on the NASCAR schedule, following Bristol which took place a few weeks earlier.
From 2000 to 2009, the race was sponsored in some form by Chevrolet. For 2001 and 2002, the race sponsorship was in conjunction with Warner Bros., with Looney Tunes characters featured in several cars' paint jobs. For the 2003–2009 races, the race was known as the Chevy Rock and Roll 400, and various cars promoted various rock music acts. The 2010 race saw the sponsorship move from Chevrolet to the Air National Guard, a branch of the United States Air Force. The race was sponsored by Roll Global through its Wonderful Pistachios brand, a division of Roll Global subsidiary Paramount Nuts in 2011. On May 2, 2012, Federated Auto Parts and Richmond International Raceway announced that Federated Auto Parts would become the race's sponsor starting in 2012.[1]
The most notable year of this race is arguably the 2013 race, which was marred by a team orders scheme (referred to as Spingate) designed to manipulate the outcome of the race and Chase positions in the final ten laps after Clint Bowyer intentionally spun out to allow Brian Vickers to pit after a restart from the caution so that Martin Truex Jr. could secure a spot in the Chase, and a separate manipulation where David Gilliland was asked to slow down to allow Joey Logano to pass so that Logano could secure a spot in the Chase. NASCAR penalized the teams involved in the scheme (Michael Waltrip Racing, Penske Racing, and Front Row Motorsports) which therefore eliminated Truex from that year's Chase, while Jeff Gordon was given a thirteenth slot (in a usually twelve-driver battle) in the Chase as a compensation. (Gordon would have been 10th in points and made it in on points instead of Logano if Logano had not passed Gilliland. Had this manipulation have not occurred, Logano would have been 11th in points but still gotten into the Chase by being in one of two wild card positions outside the top 10 in points, which is why he wasn't kicked out of the Chase like Truex. Gordon would have not qualified for a wild card spot due to being winless.) Carl Edwards would win that year's race.
This race was previously the final race before the Cup Series playoffs (previously "the Chase") began since NASCAR implemented them for the 2004 season until 2018 when it was moved into the playoffs (replacing the race at Chicagoland which was moved to June). The Brickyard 400 became the last race before the playoffs in 2018, replacing Richmond, and was again in 2019 and then the Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona became the last race of the playoffs in 2020 and still is today, excluding 2024. In 2022, the race was taken out of the playoffs and moved to August. In 2023, the race was moved again to the last weekend in July. In 2024, it was moved again to August. The track moved to Saturday Night in 2025, and remained that way for 2026.[2]
When the race was run in close proximity to (and it occasionally being run on) Patriot Day (9/11), the Pledge of Allegiance was included as part of the opening ceremony.[citation needed] The 2021 race tweaked its stage length and took place on the 20th anniversary of the September 11 attacks.[3] The race was called the Federated Auto Parts 400 Salute to First Responders.[4]
Cook Out Restaurants would become the title sponsor of the race in 2023, replacing Federated Auto Parts.[5]
The race was previously one of two at the track until 2025, when the Toyota Owners 400 in the spring was removed from the schedule. The spring race date being given to the new race in Mexico.
Past winners
- 1969: Race shortened from 500 laps due to rain.
- 1988: Track reconfigured to 0.75 miles.
- 1991: Race moved to a Saturday night event.
- 2008: Race postponed from Saturday night to Sunday afternoon due to rain.[74]
- 2012: Race started late due to rain; race finished on Sunday approximately 1:30am.[75]
- 2016, 2017 and 2024: Race extended due to an overtime finish.
Multiple winners (drivers)
Multiple winners (teams)
Multiple Winners (Manufacturers)
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Former second race
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The Toyota Owners 400 was a 400 lap NASCAR Cup Series stock car race held at the Richmond Raceway in Richmond, Virginia. From 2007 to 2011, former race title sponsor Crown Royal named the race after the winner of an essay contest during Daytona Speedweeks. The winner of the first essay contest was Jim Stewart from Houma, Louisiana, with subsequent contests won by Dan Lowry of Columbiana, Ohio, and Russ Friedman of Huntington, New York,[77] with the 2010 race being named for Army veteran Heath Calhoun of Clarksville, Tennessee. Since 2010 only military service members have been eligible to win the contest.[78] Crown Royal moved the "Your Name Here" sponsorship to the Brickyard 400 beginning in 2012.
For several years, the race was held as a Sunday afternoon event the weekend after the Daytona 500 in February. Lights were installed at the facility in 1991, but the spring race remained during the day. Consistent cold weather, and even a snow delay in 1989, prompted track officials to move the race later in the spring. The race was moved around to May or June and permanently moved from Sunday afternoons to Saturday nights. After a few years, the race eventually fixed as a May race date by 1999. Starting in 2012, the race was held on the last Saturday in April, after the race switched dates with the spring Talladega race. The race returned to Sunday afternoon in 2016 but returned to Saturday night in 2018. The 2020 race was not held due to the COVID-19 pandemic, being replaced with a race at Darlington Raceway.[79] The race was removed from the schedule following 2024, as a race will be held at Mexico City.[80]
Denny Hamlin is the final winner of the race.
Past winners
- 1962: Race shortened due to darkness.
- 1974: Race shortened due to the energy crisis.
- 1977, 1982, and 2003: Race shortened due to rain.
- 1989: Race rescheduled one month later due to snow.
- 2002: Race started on Saturday night but was finished on Sunday afternoon due to rain.[152]
- 2007 and 2015: Race postponed from Saturday night to Sunday afternoon due to rain.[153][154]
- 2008, 2013, 2018, and 2024: Race extended due to a NASCAR Overtime finish.
- 2020: Race moved to Darlington due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[146][147]
Multiple winners (drivers)
Multiple winners (teams)
Manufacturers wins
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References
External links
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