| Race details[1] | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Race 25 of 36 in the2003 NASCAR Winston Cup Series | |||
 2003 Southern 500 program cover | |||
| Date | August 31, 2003 (2003-08-31) | ||
| 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 andWally Dallenbach Jr. | ||
The2003 Mountain Dew Southern 500, the 54th running of theevent, was aNASCARWinston Cup Series race held on August 31, 2003 atDarlington Raceway inDarlington, South Carolina. Contested over 367 laps on the 1.366-mile (2.198-kilometre) speedway, it was the twenty-fifth race of the2003 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season.Terry Labonte ofHendrick 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.
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 arace track built forNASCAR racing located nearDarlington, 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]