Stock car racing at Richmond Raceway has a history stretching back to 1953. Starting in 1991, the September race was moved from Sunday afternoon to Saturday night, making it the second night race on the NASCAR schedule behind Bristol. The Saturday night format became a signature element of the Richmond autumn event and a favourite among fans.
The race had various sponsors over the years before Federated Auto Parts became involved. From 2000 to 2009 the race carried Chevrolet sponsorship in some form; for 2001 and 2002 this was in conjunction with Warner Bros., with Looney Tunes characters featured on several cars' paint schemes. From 2003 to 2009 it was known as the Chevy Rock and Roll 400, with various cars promoting rock music acts during those years. In 2010, sponsorship moved from Chevrolet to the Air National Guard. In 2011 the race was backed by Wonderful Pistachios, a brand under the Roll Global umbrella.
On 2 May 2012, Federated Auto Parts and Richmond International Raceway jointly announced that Federated Auto Parts would become the race's title sponsor beginning that year. The 2012 race itself was marked by a rain delay that pushed the start back significantly, with the event ultimately finishing in the early hours of Sunday morning at approximately 1:30 am.
For most of its run under the Federated Auto Parts name, the race occupied a uniquely important position on the NASCAR calendar: it was the final race before the Cup Series playoffs commenced. NASCAR had introduced its playoff system (originally called "the Chase") for the 2004 season, and from that year through 2017, the Richmond September race was the last opportunity for drivers to clinch a playoff berth or improve their standing before the field was locked.
In 2018 the race was incorporated into the playoff structure itself, replacing the race at Chicagoland Speedway, which was moved to June. That change brought the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis into the role of final race before the playoffs. From 2020 onward, the Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona became the final race in the regular season (or playoffs), a structure that remained in place — with the exception of 2024 — through the following years.
In 2022 the Richmond race was removed from the playoff rounds and moved back to August. In 2023 it shifted further to the final weekend in July, before returning to August in 2024.
When the race date fell in proximity to 11 September — Patriot Day in the United States — the opening ceremony incorporated the Pledge of Allegiance as a tribute to those lost in the 2001 attacks. The 2021 edition was particularly notable in this regard: it fell on the twentieth anniversary of the September 11 attacks, and the race was formally titled the Federated Auto Parts 400 Salute to First Responders, with its stage lengths adjusted to mark the occasion.
Cook Out Restaurants became the title sponsor of the race in 2023, replacing Federated Auto Parts and ending a sponsorship that had run for a decade. The race is now known as the Cook Out 400, with Austin Dillon standing as the defending winner as of 2025.
Several editions of the Federated Auto Parts 400 era were affected by weather or overtime finishes. The 2008 race was postponed from Saturday night to Sunday afternoon due to rain. The 2012 race started late and finished past midnight on Sunday. The 2016, 2017, and 2024 editions were all extended by NASCAR overtime finishes.
The Federated Auto Parts 400 era at Richmond represented a decade of high-stakes September racing that combined the drama of playoff positioning, Saturday night atmosphere, and a facility with over seventy years of Cup Series history. The event's role as a playoff gatekeeper gave it an outsized significance relative to a mid-field oval race, ensuring that both the manufacturer and the track name remained closely associated with one of the most consequential moments on the NASCAR calendar.