Saturday night's Cook Out 400 at Richmond Raceway is being touted as close to being sold out, but some NASCAR fans aren't buying into the hype. Their frustration isn't about ticket sales in 2025. It's about how many fewer tickets there are to sell.Earlier today (August 14), Sports Business Journal's Adam Stern shared a CBS 6 Richmond report on X, noting the near-sellout status:"Saturday night's NASCAR Cup Series race at Richmond 'is very close to being sold out' - @CBS6"That headline was all it took to ignite debate among long-time NASCAR fans. The primary complaint remains that the 'sellout' tag only applies to the current, much-reduced seating configuration of Richmond Raceway.One fan wrote:"Sellout in its current seating configuration* Let’s not forget that they’ve removed a ton of seating. Richmond isn't the only culprit of this misleading headline/soundbite. A sellout in 2025 at Richmond would look awful in 2005. Yes, I'm salty and frustrated."Matthew Largen @MatthewLargenLINKSellout in its current seating configuration* Let's not forget that they’ve removed a ton of seating. Richmond isn’t the only culprit of this misleading headline/soundbite. A sellout in 2025 at Richmond would look awful in 2005. Yes, I’m salty and frustrated.Others quickly echoed the same sentiment:"They only have two more sections of grandstands to remove, and it will be completely sold out," said one fan."I remember back in the 80s and 90s Richmond and Bristol were sold out years in advance," recalled one fan.While some fans pointed out that Richmond's races have been decreased from two to one each year."One race a year, where close to half of the original seats have been removed. 😆," said yet another."I used to go to sold out races at Bristol and Richmond. It’s easy to sell out a race when you don’t have to sell out the backstretch," said yet another.That last comment refers to Richmond Raceway removing its entire backstretch grandstand in 2016 - a change that cut thousands of seats from a facility that once pushed well past 100,000 in capacity.The Cook Out 400 and Richmond Raceway's changing grandstand pictureAlex Bowman (48) leads during the Toyota Owners 400 at Richmond Raceway. Source: ImagnThis weekend's Cook Out 400 marks the 137th NASCAR Cup Series race hosted by Richmond Raceway. The 0.75-mile oval in Henrico County, Virginia, features 14 degrees of banking in the turns, 8 degrees on the frontstretch, and 2 degrees on the backstretch.It's one of the sport's few remaining short tracks and in recent years, the only NASCAR weekend held here after the venue went from two annual races down to one. Track president Lori Waran addressed that shift in a pre-race press conference (via the CBS 6 report):"We were, of course, a little disappointed to go from two races to one. But we knew we were going to make this week special. We knew that we could put a ton of effort into making this a community hub all year long."The report Stern posted detailed the preparations: parking lots opening at 10 a.m., over 500 RMC Events staff on hand, and roughly 100 Henrico Police officers assisting with traffic and crowd flow for the 7:30 p.m. green flag.But while the focus this week is on crowd size, the capacity story has been trending the other way for more than a decade. In 2007, Richmond's seating topped out at 112,029 - a figure completed in time for that year's Crown Royal 400. By 2016, the track removed the entire 9,000-seat backstretch, bringing capacity to just over 60,000.Pit road before the Cook Out 400 at Richmond Raceway 2023. Source: ImagnRichmond isn't alone. Other NASCAR Cup Series venues, from Michigan to Daytona, have also removed tens of thousands of seats since their attendance peaks in the mid-2000s. Track operators cite outdated grandstands, shifting fan habits, and the profitability of converting certain areas into hospitality or RV spaces.For some fans, that's smart business. For others, especially those who remember years-long sellout streaks, it's a reminder of a very different NASCAR era. And it's why a 'sold out' Cook Out 400 in 2025 feels hollow compared to the shoulder-to-shoulder crowds of 20 years ago.