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Date August 31, 2003 (2003-August-31) Official name Mountain Dew Southern 500 Location Darlington Raceway, Darlington County, South Carolina Course Permanent racing facility
1.366 mi (2.198 km) Distance 367 laps, 501.322 mi (806.800 km) Average speed 120.733 miles per hour (194.301 km/h) | ||
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 is his final Cup series win.
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It is the last Southern 500 held on Labor Day weekend until 2015.
Background
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. 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. The front stretch (the location of the finish line) and the back stretch is banked at six degrees. Darlington Raceway can seat up to 60,000 people.