Dating back to 1959, the roots of the Chevy Rock & Roll 400 are amongst the oldest and deepest on the NASCAR Sprint Cup circuit, and also the historic Richmond International Raceway in Richmond, Virginia. Since 2004, the Rock & Roll 400 has served as the last race in NASCAR's "regular season", and will be known as One Last Race to Make the Chase in 2010. After this race, the top twelve drivers in the standings advance to the ten-race Chase for the Sprint Cup.
Given that the race promotes a rock and roll theme, the winner's trophy is a custom painted PRS electric guitar, while certain teams also choose to run their cars with special paint schemes of popular rock music performers. Additionally, because of its proximity to Patriot Day, the Pledge of Allegiance is included as part of the opening ceremony.
Dating back to the race's inaugural Richmond 200 in 1959, many legendary NASCAR champions and superstars have raced and won this race, some at least twice, and quite a few in consecutive years. The list of truly dominant winners is topped by "The King", Richard Petty, with seven victories in eight years (1967-68, 1970-74). King Richard is then followed by Bobby Allison with five (1969, 1979-80, 1982-83), four for both Darrel Waltrip (1975, 1978, 1984-85) and Rusty Wallace (1989, 1992-93, 1995), and numerous others.
