The 1998 Pontiac Excitement 400 was the 13th stock car race of the 1998 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season and the 44th iteration of the event. The race was held on Saturday, June 6, 1998, in Richmond, Virginia, at Richmond International Raceway, a 0.75 miles (1.21 km) D-shaped oval. The race took the scheduled 400 laps to complete. With two laps to go, Hendrick Motorsports driver Terry Labonte would make a final pass in a battle with Robert Yates Racing driver Dale Jarrett. On the fourth turn of the penultimate lap, the caution would come out for Johnny Benson Jr. Labonte was able to defend Jarrett and complete the penultimate lap to take his 20th career NASCAR Winston Cup Series victory and his only victory of the season. To fill out the podium, Jarrett and Penske-Kranefuss Racing driver Rusty Wallace would finish second and third, respectively. The event was overshadowed when Rusty Wallace completely took out Jeff Gordon in turn 2 with 29 laps to go. Gordon in his interview when asked what happened, he replied "well, that's pretty obvious you tell me you know. You got on video. I think it's pretty simple you know I uh- I had the position on him. He just drove into the left rear. I don't know what happened."

The Toyota Owners 400 is a 400 lap NASCAR Cup Series stock car race held at the Richmond Raceway in Richmond, Virginia. From 2007 to 2011, former race title sponsor Crown Royal named the race after the winner of an essay contest during Daytona Speedweeks. The winner of the first essay contest was Jim Stewart from Houma, Louisiana, with subsequent contests won by Dan Lowry of Columbiana, Ohio, and Russ Friedman of Huntington, New York, with the 2010 race being named for Army veteran Heath Calhoun of Clarksville, Tennessee. Since 2010 only military service members have been eligible to win the contest. Crown Royal moved the "Your Name Here" sponsorship to the Brickyard 400 beginning in 2012.