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Richmond Raceway announces major attendance news ahead of Cook Out 400

JHby: Jonathan Howard08/16/25Jondean25
Cook Out 400 sold out NASCAR Richmond
Kristi K. Higgins/Progress-Index.com / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Tonight’s Cook Out 400 is officially a sellout, according to Richmond Raceway. Great news for the track, which has only one date now. If you are going to lose a date on the NASCAR schedule, at least sell the tickets for the one race you do have.

In recent years, some tracks have lost dates on the schedule. Michigan and Pocono have made it work out. Dover, to some extent, has done better since going to a single race on the schedule. Now, it appears that Richmond has turned this bad news into good news.

Tonight’s race is going to have an unreal atmosphere. Packed stands of around 50,000 people and a race under the lights. What more could you ask for?

This is the first sold-out crowd at Richmond in 17 years. Yes, the track holds fewer fans than it used to. During the NASCAR boom, Richmond blew up to a facility that could seat over 100,000 fans. However, capacity has been limited to fewer than 50,000.

Still, this track wasn’t selling out last year or the year before that. It didn’t sell out for most of the last two decades. Now, the track has a single date on the schedule, the Cook Out 400, and the fans have packed the stands to watch short track action at one of NASCAR’s most classic tracks.

With the tires being volatile, will we see an exciting race once again at the venue once dubbed the Action Track? Fans are eager, they are packing the stands, and if they can get an entertaining race out of it, the one-day change will be a massive success.

Cook Out 400 set to deliver the action at Richmond

The Cook Out 400 is going to be a big question mark. Until we see how these tires interact with the race track without the sun beating down on it, we don’t know what we should expect. So many variables right now with these tires.

Bristol in 2024 showed us what tires and weather can do. In practice on Friday at Richmond, some teams were having flashbacks to that race. There were even questions about whether the teams needed more sets of tires to make it the entire distance.

Right now, Richmond Raceway has nothing to lose. It has already lost one date on the schedule; the racing hasn’t been great in the Next Gen era. So, why not gamble on these tires and see if it can give fans and drivers what they want from this car on this track.