Stock car races in the NASCAR Cup Series have been held at the Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, Texas since 1997. The 400-mile (640 km) event, currently known as Autotrader EchoPark Automotive 400 for sponsorship reasons, has been held sometime in October or November each year, except for 2024 when it was held in April, where the track's original spring race (held from 1997 to 2020) was traditionally held.
The race's trophy is in the shape of a cowboy hat on top of a piston. Traditionally, the winning driver wears a black cowboy hat and fires a couple of six-shooters in the air on victory lane.[2]
Chase Elliott is the defending winner of the event, having won it in 2024.
The track's original race, held in spring, was held from 1997 to 2020. The first two runnings of the race were controversial, crash-strewn affairs, with universal criticism that the track's design was one groove; Kenny Wallace argued, "They're so busy building condos they don't have time to fix the racetrack." Traditionalist fans also criticized the replacement of North Wilkesboro Speedway with the Texas in the schedule.
There were twelve different winners in the first twelve races, the longest such streak for any NASCAR track in the Cup Series. This list includes Texas native Terry Labonte, who won in 1999, Dale Earnhardt Jr. winning his first race in 2000, and Tony Stewart's 2006 fall victory despite missing the Chase that year. Jeff Burton, the winner of the inaugural race, broke that streak by getting his second Texas win in a last-lap pass in 2007's spring race. In 2011, the race became a Saturday night event, whereas before it was always a Sunday afternoon race. This was done since the night race at Phoenix was moved to February and became a day race. The 2011 race was run on April 9, 2011, and was the first scheduled night race of the season, and in Texas Motor Speedway history for the Cup Series.
The track's fall race was acquired as a result of the Ferko lawsuit, which forced NASCAR to relinquish the sport's fourth major, the Mountain Dew Southern 500 (which only returned in 2020) and in the process end its Grand Slam, as the Southern 500 was one of the four races that made it up. The fall race has been derisively referred to as the "Francis Ferko 500", mostly by traditionalist fans upset by the demise of the Southern 500.
In 2013, NASCAR became involved in controversy when the National Rifle Association (NRA) began to sponsor the spring race; although race sponsorships are negotiated with the track owner, not NASCAR itself, the sanctioning organization has final approval and did not object to the sponsorship.[3][4][5][6] Both NASCAR's acceptance of this sponsorship, and its timing, has been controversial, and offensive to gun control activists.[7][8][9][10] Because of the sponsorship, Senator Chris Murphy asked Rupert Murdoch, whose News Corporation owns Fox Sports, which was scheduled to air the race, to not broadcast it.[11] Fox broadcast the race as scheduled, not least because failure to do so would have been a breach of the network's contract with NASCAR. However, Fox only used the official sponsored name once per hour (the minimum mandated by NASCAR) and otherwise referred to it generically (in this case as the "Texas 500"), the network's usual practice when a race's title sponsor does not buy ads during the race broadcast; the NRA reportedly did not seek to purchase any such ads.[3] The NRA would return as a race sponsor in 2016 for the Bristol Night Race in August at Speedway's owned Bristol Motor Speedway.[12]
In 2014, the race returned to being a Sunday afternoon race because of the NCAA Men's Basketball Final Four games being held at AT&T Stadium in nearby Arlington so that the race occurs on a day in between tournament games.[13] On February 6, 2014, Duck Commander, the business that is the subject of the TV show Duck Dynasty, bought the naming rights for the race.[14] The race returned to its Saturday night date in 2015.[15] In 2017, the race would once again return to Sunday afternoon and the race was renamed under a new sponsorship deal with O'Reilly Auto Parts.[16]
Since 2002, the trophy awarded to the winner has been cowboy boots, a white cowboy hat, and a pair of six-shooters to fire off in victory lane. The winner of the event (both spring and fall race when it joined the calendar in 2005) bolts their name onto a Wall of Champions that have their name engraved on a plate using a laser engraver.
Samsung sponsored the spring race from 2002 to 2012, while RadioShack was previously a co-sponsor. The spring race's joint sponsorship was grandfathered in 2003 by NASCAR's grandfather clause when Nextel became a NASCAR sponsor, as they banned rival wireless sponsorships (Nextel used Motorola exclusively); the ban was lifted after the 2005 merger of Sprint and Nextel because Sprint is sold at RadioShack, and Sprint offers Samsung products.
The track scaled down to just one race starting from the 2021 season, dropping the spring race in favor of hosting the NASCAR All-Star Race and the addition of Circuit of the Americas in Austin to the schedule.[17] In 2024, the race was moved to the former spring slot.
Year-by-year (fall race)
2005: The inaugural Fall race saw Carl Edwards dominate the second half of the race. With 15 laps to go, the caution came out for debris. Most of the leaders stayed out, but Edwards took two right-sides to restart 6th with 11 laps to go. Edwards charged through traffic to deny Mark Martin (who stayed out) from becoming the first repeat winner in Texas Motor Speedway history by passing him on the penultimate lap. Edwards became the 10th different winner in 10 races.
2006:Tony Stewart led 278 of 339 laps to become the 12th different winner in 12 races. Despite the record for most laps led in one event, Stewart has the record of most laps led by a race winner.
2007: Jimmie Johnson's path to his second-straight Cup title saw him win his third-straight Cup race after dueling with Matt Kenseth in the closing laps. Johnson would go on to win the next week for 4 in a row to seal a 10-win season.
2008: Carl Edwards' win makes him the first driver to sweep both races at Texas and the first 3-time winner at TMS. He was able to eke out the final 69 laps on his final tank of gas and coast to victory.
2009:Kyle Busch and Kurt Busch dominated the race as the brothers swapped the lead at different points in the race leading a combined 321 of 334 laps. Coming down to fuel mileage, Kyle had led 232 laps and was on his way to a dominant win until he ran out with less than 3 to go. Brother Kurt led 89 laps and was able to stretch his gas tank to win the event by over 25 seconds as others were running out of gas. Aside from the Busch brothers, only Denny Hamlin (2 laps led) and Jeff Gordon (11 laps led) led laps.
2010: Denny Hamlin became the second driver to sweep both races at Texas when he won the Samsung Mobile 500 in spring and the AAA Texas 500 in fall. Also, around mid-race, a shoving match occurred when Jeff Burton and Jeff Gordon crashed in turn 2.
2011: Tony Stewart's surge towards the 2011 Cup championship continued between him and Carl Edwards, a theme through the 2011 Cup Playoffs. Stewart dominated and won his fourth race in eight starts since he went winless during the regular season, with Edwards finishing 2nd. Eddie Gossage, the track's president awarded Stewart with a robe and a pair of boxing gloves to continue the Stewart-Edwards battle. It was Tony's second win at Texas, having won 5 years prior.
2012: The first 100 laps of the race went green, combine that with the last 234 laps of the April 2012 race that went green, means a total of 334 consecutive laps were run caution-free, a full scheduled race at Texas. Jimmie Johnson won, for his 60th NASCAR Cup Series win, and also Chevrolet's 700th win.
2013: Johnson's second consecutive fall win makes him Texas Motor Speedway's second 3-time winner, putting him in a tie with Carl Edwards.
2014: Johnson took his third straight win in the fall race, leading 191 of 341 laps. On a green-white-checkered restart, Brad Keselowski tried to go three-wide and made contact with Jeff Gordon, cutting Gordon's left rear tire and causing him to spin in turn 4. Gordon lost a lap and finished 29th while Keselowski finished third. Tempers boiled over, escalating into a post-race brawl on pit road between Keselowski, Gordon, and their pit crews that were apparently instigated by Kevin Harvick.
2015: In the 2015 running, Jimmie Johnson grabbed his fourth straight win in the fall race and became the third driver in the track's history to sweep both races at Texas, as well as winning his third consecutive event at the track. Brad Keselowski led 312 of 334 laps (a track record). Dale Earnhardt Jr. tagged the wall with his right-rear corner. This affected the handling of his car and he began to fall back through the field. He spun in the turn 3 apron on lap 167, Kevin Harvick made an unscheduled stop with 53 laps to go for a flat right-rear tire. He fell to 20th–place in the running order and down a lap. Carl Edwards kicked off the final cycle of pit stops with 38 laps to go. Keselowski hit pit road with 37 laps to go and the lead cycled to Harvick. Denny Hamlin was tagged for speeding on pit road and was forced to serve a drive-through penalty. On 16-lap older tires, he was no match for Keselowski as he was passed with ease with 35 laps to go. Keselowski was leading in the closing laps, a few circuits away from locking a spot in the Championship 4 at Homestead. His dominant performance did not end with the win as Johnson got around Brad with 4 laps to go, settling for 2nd. The next week, Keselowski had no luck and failed to advance to the Championship 4.
2016: Originally scheduled to be broadcast on NBC, the 2016 running was moved to NBCSN due to inclement weather, Carl Edwards grabbed the win after the race was called for inclement weather after 293 laps. It would turn out to be Edward's final Cup win before abruptly announcing his retirement after the 2016 season. As of 2020, this is the only Cup race at Texas that has failed to go the scheduled distance.
2017: Kevin Harvick took advantage of lapped traffic holding up leader Martin Truex Jr. and take the lead with 10 to go in the first Fall race on the new configuration. It was Harvick's first win at Texas Motor Speedway in his 30th start at the track.
2018: Harvick won the race in dominating fashion, but he along with Ryan Blaney who finished second, and Erik Jones who finished fourth all failed post-race tech. Kevin's win would be encumbered and would have to sweat out to point his way to the Championship 4. The scenario would later fuel the fans' desire to see a winning car that fails tech be disqualified and stripped of the win. In 2019, NASCAR came up with the rule that has been used since. As soon as the winning car is wheeled out of victory circle, it undergoes post-race tech that takes 90–120 minutes immediately, and the results of if it passed or failed are confirmed that day, knowing who the winner is instead of a few days later. Had the rule been in effect at the time, third-place finisher Joey Logano would have won the race.
2019: Harvick won the fall race at Texas for the third year in a row in dominating fashion, this time passing post-race tech to advance to the Championship 4.
Autotrader and EchoPark, the current title sponsors of the race, were the title sponsors of the race when it was 500 miles from 2020 to 2022
2020: The race was red-flagged on Sunday on lap 52 due to rain and mist and would be subject to the longest red-flag in NASCAR's history, first being postponed to the following Monday morning, then again to Tuesday afternoon due to the same inclement weather, then again a third time to Wednesday afternoon as a result of the mist, a total of nearly 72 hours. Rather ironically, the two most prominent drivers retiring at the end of the year, Clint Bowyer and Jimmie Johnson, were scored 1st and 2nd, respectively, at the time of the red flag. After the race resumed, Kyle Busch held off Martin Truex Jr. to claim his first Cup Series win of the 2020 season, keeping a 16-year winning streak alive (since 2005 when he became a full-time driver). It snapped a 33-race winless skid, with his last being at Homestead in November 2019 when he won the race and championship. Kyle also tied Carl Edwards for second-most wins at Texas with his 4th.
2021:Kyle Larson won his eighth race of the season en route to winning the championship that year. This win also made him sweep the 2021 Cup Series races at Texas as he also won the 2021 NASCAR All-Star Race earlier in the year at the track.
2022: The race was marred with controversy, with a record of 16 cautions throughout the race. Most of them were for tire failures in turn 4. Cody Ware would crash head-on into the turn 4 wall on lap 168, then careened down pit road almost hitting the pit road opening to the garage at high speed. Kevin Harvick, Martin Truex, Jr., and Chase Elliott would all suffer tire blowouts while leading that took them out of contention, while playoff drivers Alex Bowman and Christopher Bell would crash from tire failures (Bowman would later be revealed to have suffered from concussion-like symptoms from the crash that sat him out of the next race). During a caution period for Truex's incident, William Byron shoved Denny Hamlin on the tri-oval from 2nd spinning Hamlin out in retaliation from Hamlin running Byron into the turn 2 wall earlier in the race. NASCAR officials missed the replay of the incident and instead sent Hamlin to 15th for not maintaining position under caution while Byron was fined $50,000 and docked 25 driver and owner points two days after the race. Ty Gibbs was also fined $75,000 and docked 25 owner points (as he is competing for the Xfinity points, he could not receive or lose Cup points) for contact with Ty Dillon on the pit road, the second time in a year for Gibbs. Tyler Reddick would go on to win the race for his 3rd win with Richard Childress Racing and becoming the 4th non-playoff driver in a row to win a race, after being eliminated from the Round of 16 by 2 points.
