2003 Mountain Dew Southern 500

The 2003 Mountain Dew Southern 500, the 54th running of the event, was a NASCAR Winston Cup Series race held on August 31, 2003 at Darlington Raceway in Darlington, South Carolina. Contested at 367 laps on the 1.366 mile (2.198 km) speedway, it was the twenty-fifth race of the 2003 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season. Terry Labonte of Hendrick Motorsports won the race. This would prove to be his 22nd and final Cup series win.

2003 Mountain Dew Southern 500
Race details[1]
Race 25 of 36 in the 2003 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season
Layout of Darlington Raceway
Date August 31, 2003 (2003-August-31)
Official name Mountain Dew Southern 500
Location Darlington Raceway
Darlington County, South Carolina, U.S.
Course Permanent racing facility
1.366 mi (2.198 km)
Distance 367 laps, 501.322 mi (806.800 km)
Weather Temperatures hovering around 93.2 °F (34.0 °C); wind speeds approaching 8 miles per hour (13 km/h)[2]
Average speed 120.733 miles per hour (194.301 km/h)[1]
Attendance 75,000[1]
Pole position
Driver
Penske Racing
Most laps led
Driver Ryan Newman Penske Racing
Laps 120
Winner
No. 5 Terry Labonte Hendrick Motorsports
Television in the United States
Network NBC
Announcers Allen Bestwick, Benny Parsons and Wally Dallenbach, Jr.

It is the last Southern 500 held on Labor Day weekend until 2015.

Background
Layout of Darlington Raceway, the track where the race was held.

Darlington Raceway, nicknamed by many NASCAR fans and drivers as "The Lady in Black" or "The Track Too Tough to Tame" and advertised as a "NASCAR Tradition", is a race track built for NASCAR racing located near Darlington, South Carolina. It is of a unique, somewhat egg-shaped design, an oval with the ends of very different configurations, a condition which supposedly arose from the proximity of one end of the track to a minnow pond the owner refused to relocate. This situation makes it very challenging for the crews to set up their cars' handling in a way that will be effective at both ends.

The track, Darlington Raceway, is a four-turn 1.366 miles (2.198 km) oval.[3] The track's first two turns are banked at twenty-five degrees, while the final two turns are banked two degrees lower at twenty-three degrees.[3] The front stretch (the location of the finish line) and the back stretch is banked at six degrees.[3] Darlington Raceway can seat up to 60,000 people.[3]

Top 10 results
Pos No. Driver Team Manufacturer
1 5Terry LabonteHendrick MotorsportsChevrolet
2 29Kevin HarvickRichard Childress RacingChevrolet
3 48Jimmie JohnsonHendrick MotorsportsChevrolet
4 42Jamie McMurrayChip Ganassi RacingDodge
5 9Bill ElliottEvernham MotorsportsDodge
6 19Jeremy MayfieldEvernham MotorsportsDodge
7 18Bobby LabonteJoe Gibbs RacingChevrolet
8 32Ricky CravenPPI MotorsportsPontiac
9 38Elliott SadlerRobert Yates RacingFord
10 16Greg BiffleRoush RacingFord

Race Statistics
  • Time of race: 4:09:08[1]
  • Average Speed: 120.733 miles per hour (194.301 km/h)[1]
  • Pole Speed: 169.048 miles per hour (272.056 km/h)[1]
  • Cautions: 10 for 55 laps[1]
  • Margin of Victory: 1.651 sec[1]
  • Lead changes: 24[1]
  • Percent of race run under caution: 15.0%[1]
  • Average green flag run: 28.4 laps[1]

References
  1. Results for the 2003 Mountain Dew 500 at Racing Reference
  2. Weather information at The Old Farmers' Almanac
  3. "Darlington Raceway". CBS Sports. Retrieved 2013-05-07.
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