Cook Out 400

The Cook Out 400 is an annual NASCAR Cup Series stock car race held at the Richmond Raceway in Richmond, Virginia, being the second of two races at the track with the first one being the Toyota Owners 400 in the spring.

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. In 2022, this race was taken out of the playoffs and moved to August. In 2023, the race was moved again to the last weekend in July.

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.

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.

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. The 2021 race, which took place on the 20th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, was called the Federated Auto Parts 400 Salute to First Responders.

Cook Out Restaurants would become the title sponsor of the race in 2023, replacing Federated Auto Parts.

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.
 * 2012: Race started late due to rain; race finished on Sunday approximately 1:30am.
 * 2016 and 2017: Race extended due to an overtime finish.

Track length notes

 * 1958–1967: 0.5 mile course
 * 1968: 0.625 mile course
 * 1969–1987: 0.542 mile course
 * 1988–present: 0.75 mile course