2003 Carolina Dodge Dealers 400

The 2003 Carolina Dodge Dealers 400 was held on March 16, 2003 at Darlington Speedway in South Carolina and was the fifth race of the 2003 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season. The race was remembered for the finish as Ricky Craven won the race in a stunning, side panel rubbing battle to the checkers with Kurt Busch at Darlington Raceway, at the start/finish line Craven edged out Busch by .002 thousands of a second.^[1] It was the closest finish in NASCAR Winston Cup Series history, although that mark his since been tied by the finish in the 2011 Aaron's 499. In general, it is not the closest in history among the three major series, in the 1995 Total Petroleum 200, Butch Miller beat Mike Skinner by .001 in a NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Colorado. Earlier in the race, Busch missed entering pit road while green flag pit stops was occurring. Elliott Sadler won the pole for the race, his first of the season. It was also the final NASCAR win for Pontiac as they left the series at the end of the season and it was Dave Blaney's first top 5 finish with a third place effort. Dale Earnhardt Jr. led the most laps of the race with 91 out of the 293 lap distance.

Early action

Early in the race, Jerry Nadeau was running in second until he spun around all by himself in turn one which brought out the first caution. The championship leader, Matt Kenseth and Jamie McMurray made contact to avoid Nedeau and Kenseth spun, entering turn two. Just a few laps later, Jack Sprague got loose in turn four and spun around without any serious damage. Ryan Newman, who started second in this race and Ward Burton were running side by side until both of them were around in turn two. Soon after that, Sterling Marlin and Jimmie Johnson were running side-by-side, which both ran out of room and sent Marlin in to the wall. A corner later, he would hit the wall again and collected Bobby Labonte, Tony Raines, Kevin Harvick and Sprague once again.

Race results

Top Ten Finishers
Pos.	Car #	Driver	Make	Team
1	32	Ricky Craven	Pontiac	PPI Motorsports
2	97	Kurt Busch	Ford	Roush Racing
3	77	Dave Blaney	Ford	Jasper Motorsports
4	6	Mark Martin	Ford	Roush Racing
5	15	Michael Waltrip	Chevrolet	Dale Earnhardt Inc.
6	8	Dale Earnhardt Jr.	Chevrolet	Dale Earnhardt Inc.
7	38	Elliott Sadler	Ford	Robert Yates Racing
8	17	Matt Kenseth	Ford	Roush Racing
9	9	Bill Elliott	Dodge	Evernham Motorsports
10	20	Tony Stewart	Chevrolet	Joe Gibbs Racing

References

1. ^ 2003 Carolina Dodge Dealers 400

External links

• Race Results and Standings

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