For several years leading up to 2025, there were rumors that Richmond Raceway may be losing one of its two NASCAR Cup Series race dates. And on every single occasion, the annual schedule release proved those rumors false again and again.
The closest the Cup Series came to proving them true happened in 2020, when Richmond was scheduled to host two races but only ended up hosting one as a result of pandemic-related restrictions.
So it could still be said that the most recent season in which the four-turn, 0.75-mile (1.207-kilometer) Richmond, Virginia oval was only on the schedule with one race date happened all the way back in 1958.
But that is not the case for Richmond any longer.
Richmond hosted a race on Easter Sunday last year after Bristol Motor Speedway's dirt race was contested on the holiday in 2022 and 2023, a two-year stint that marked the end of a five-decade run without a scheduled Easter Cup event.
But this year, NASCAR had off for Easter Weekend, and the Father's Day race at Iowa Speedway was moved to early August, since there was no three-week stoppage in the action due to the Summer Olympics this year.
NASCAR's Easter race effectively moved into Father's Day Weekend, but instead of being contested at Richmond, it was contested at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, the Mexican road course which had never previously hosted a Cup event (and won't host one again next year, either).
And as a result, after 66 years of appearing on the schedule with two races dates, Richmond was only left with one in 2025.
That one is this Saturday, August 16. The drivers of NASCAR's top series are set to compete in the 400-lap Cook Out 400 under the lights, with live coverage of the penultimate race of the 26-race regular season set to be provided by USA Network beginning at 7:30 p.m. ET.
Richard Childress Racing's Austin Dillon is the reigning race winner after Joe Gibbs Racing's Denny Hamlin won the previous race at the track on Easter Sunday, though Dillon's win did not count toward locking him into the playoffs since he wrecked two drivers, including Hamlin, on the final lap to secure it. Start a free trial of FuboTV now and don't miss any of the action!