2003 Mountain Dew Southern 500
| Race details[1] | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Race 25 of 36 in the 2003 NASCAR Winston Cup Series | |||
 2003 Southern 500 program cover | |||
| Date | August 31, 2003 | ||
| Official name | Mountain Dew Southern 500 | ||
| Location |
Darlington Raceway Darlington County, South Carolina, U.S. | ||
| Course | Permanent racing facility | ||
| Course length | 1.366 miles (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 | ||
| Time | 29.090 | ||
| 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. | ||
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 over 367 laps on the 1.366-mile (2.198-kilometre) speedway, it was the twenty-fifth race of the 2003 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season. Terry Labonte of Hendrick Motorsports won the race, for his 22nd – and ultimately, final – Cup Series win.
It is the last Southern 500 held on Labor Day weekend until 2015.
Background
[edit | edit source]
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-mile (2.198-kilometre) 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]
Results
[edit | edit source]Failed to qualify
[edit | edit source]- Larry Foyt (#50)
Race statistics
[edit | edit source]- 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 seconds[1]
- Lead changes: 24[1]
- Percent of race run under caution: 15.0%[1]
- Average green flag run: 28.4 laps[1]
References
[edit | edit source]- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Results for the 2003 Mountain Dew 500 at Racing Reference
- ^ Weather information at The Old Farmers' Almanac
- ^ a b c d Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
- ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).