The 2003 Food City 500 was the sixth stock car race of the 2003 NASCAR Winston Cup Series. It was held on March 23, 2003, before a crowd of approximately 160,000, in Bristol, Tennessee, at Bristol Motor Speedway, a short tracks that holds NASCAR races. The 500-lap race was won by Kurt Busch of the Roush Racing team after starting from 9th position. Matt Kenseth of Roush Racing finished 2nd and Joe Gibbs Racing's Bobby Labonte finished 3rd.
Entering the event, Kenseth led the Drivers' Championship by 57 points over Tony Stewart in second position. Although Ryan Newman won the pole position with the fastest recorded lap time in qualifying, he was immediately passed by Jeff Gordon at the start of the race. Twenty-eight laps later Rusty Wallace became the leader of the race. Gordon reclaimed the lead on lap 34 and led the most laps with 174. Jimmy Spencer passed Gordon for the lead on lap 161, and kept the position for a total of 139 laps. After the final pit stops, Busch became the leader of the race and maintained the position to lead a total of 116 laps, and to win his first race of the season. There were seventeen cautions and eleven lead changes among seven different drivers during the course of the race.
The race victory was Busch's first win in the 2003 season and the fifth of his career. The result advanced Busch from joint 5th with Ricky Craven to second in the Drivers' Championship, 138 points behind Kenseth, and nine ahead of Stewart, who fell to 3rd. Ford maintained its lead in the Manufacturers' Championship, eight ahead of Chevrolet, and eighteen ahead of Pontiac, who demoted Dodge to 4th place, with thirty races of the season remaining.
Background
The Food City 500 was the sixth scheduled stock car race of the 2003 NASCAR Winston Cup Series, out of 36, and the 2000th in Winston Cup Series history. It was held on March 23, 2003, in Bristol, Tennessee, at Bristol Motor Speedway, a short track that holds NASCAR races. The standard track at Bristol Motor Speedway is a four-turn short track oval that is long. The track's turns are banked from twenty-four to thirty degrees, while both the front stretch (the location of the finish line) and the back stretch are banked from six to ten degrees.
Before the race, Matt Kenseth led the Drivers' Championship with 760 points, with Tony Stewart in second place with 703 points. Michael Waltrip and Dale Earnhardt Jr. were third and fourth with 698 and 634 points respectively, with Kurt Busch and Ricky Craven were tied for fifth place with 617 points. Dave Blaney, Jimmie Johnson, Joe Nemechek and Johnny Benson Jr. rounded out the top ten. In the Manufacturers' Championship, Ford was leading with 36 points, five points ahead of their rivals Chevrolet. Pontiac, with 24 points, was five points ahead of Dodge in the battle for third place. Busch was the race's defending champion.
Ahead of the event, Speedway Motorsports unveiled an extended backstretch grandstand which added 43,826 to the track's capacity. Spectators at the track also planned a "patriotic rally" which showed support to troops serving in the Iraq War. This caused Speedway Motorsports to employ extra security during the event. NASCAR subsequently announced that a contingency plan was being prepared that included arrangements for travel and extra security for the next three races in the season. The United States Government gave its consent to NASCAR and the other professional sporting associations to resume with their normal schedules.
Practice and qualifying
Three practice sessions were held before the Sunday race—one on Friday and two on Saturday. The first session lasted 120 minutes, while the second and final sessions ran for 45 minutes. Jeff Gordon was fastest in the first practice session with a time of 15.149 seconds, ahead of Sterling Marlin in second and Ryan Newman in third. Ken Schrader (with a lap of 15.178) was fourth fastest, and Mike Skinner placed fifth. Busch, Kenny Wallace, Earnhardt, Jimmy Spencer and Nemechek rounded out the session's top-ten drivers. During the session, Jeff Green and Jamie McMurray both made contact with the wall, and both were required to switch to back-up cars for qualifying. Robby Gordon also hit the wall, after spinning sideways.
A total of forty-five drivers were entered in the qualifier on Friday afternoon; according to NASCAR's qualifying procedure, forty-three were allowed to race. Each driver ran two timed laps to determine pole position to 36th. The remainder of the field qualified through the use of provisionals. Ryan Newman clinched the second pole position of his season, and the ninth of his career, with a time of 14.908 seconds. The time beat Jeff Gordon's March 2002 track record, and it became the first sub-15 second lap in the Winston Cup Series. He was joined on the grid's front row by Jeff Gordon who was 0.160 seconds slower than Newman and held pole position until Newman's lap. Schrader qualified third in the highest qualifying position for his team BAM Racing. Rusty Wallace took fourth, and Bill Elliott started fifth. Skinner, Spencer, Earnhardt, Busch and Stewart completed the top ten starters. Positions two through twenty-four were covered by almost two-tenths of a second. Kenseth, Dale Jarrett, Casey Mears, Kenny Wallace, Todd Bodine, Jack Sprague and John Andretti used provisionals to qualify for the event. The two drivers who failed to qualify for the race were Larry Foyt for the second time in the 2003 season and Hermie Sadler. After the qualifier Newman said, "That's the most amazed I've ever been after a qualifying run to go that fast and not anticipate it. We picked up over a quarter of a second from practice, and that's just unheard of at Bristol."
On Saturday morning, Kenseth was fastest in the second practice session with a lap of 15.683 seconds, ahead of Newman in second and Ward Burton in third. Busch was fourth quickest, and Rusty Wallace took fifth. Jeff Burton managed sixth. Kyle Petty, Mark Martin, Sprague and Nemechek followed in the top ten. During the final practice session, Busch was fastest with a time of 15.701. Stewart and Jeff Gordon followed in second and third with times of 15.722 and 15.723. Dave Blaney was fourth fastest, ahead of Earnhardt and Craven. Kenseth was seventh fastest, Martin eighth, Jerry Nadeau ninth, and Ward Burton tenth. The session was temporarily suspended when Marlin spun on the track, but managed not to collide with the barriers.
Qualifying results Grid Driver Team Manufacturer 112 Ryan Newman Penske Racing Dodge 14.908 128.709 224 Jeff Gordon Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 15.068 127.343 349 Ken Schrader BAM Racing Dodge 15.094 127.123 42 Rusty Wallace Penske Racing Dodge 15.106 127.022 59 Bill Elliott Evernham Motorsport Dodge 15.108 127.006 64 Mike Skinner Morgan–McClure Motorsports Pontiac 15.135 126.779 77 Jimmy Spencer Ultra Motorsports Dodge 15.158 126.587 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Dale Earnhardt, Inc. Chevrolet 15.160 126.570 997 Kurt Busch Roush Racing Ford 15.161 126.562 1020 Tony Stewart Joe Gibbs Racing Chevrolet 15.175 126.445 1122 Ward Burton Bill Davis Racing Dodge 15.181 126.395 1218 Bobby Labonte Joe Gibbs Racing Chevrolet 15.188 126.337 1301 Jerry Nadeau MB2 Motorsports Pontiac 15.200 126.237 1432 Ricky Craven PPI Motorsports Pontiac 15.226 126.021 1516 Greg Biffle Roush Racing Ford 15.228 126.005 1640 Sterling Marlin Chip Ganassi Racing Dodge 15.234 125.955 175 Terry Labonte Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 15.237 125.930 1819 Jeremy Mayfield Evernham Motorsports Dodge 15.240 125.906 196 Mark Martin Roush Racing Ford 15.251 125.815 2010 Johnny Benson Jr. MB2 Motorsports Pontiac 15.254 125.790 2130 Jeff Green Dale Earnhardt, Inc. Chevrolet 15.254 125.790 2274 Tony Raines BACE Motorsports Chevrolet 15.260 125.741 2348 Jimmie Johnson Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 15.262 125.724 2437 Derrike Cope Quest Motor Racing Chevrolet 15.265 125.699 2525 Joe Nemechek Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 15.270 125.658 2642 Jamie McMurray Chip Ganassi Racing Dodge 15.283 125.551 2729 Kevin Harvick Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet 15.289 125.502 2815 Michael Waltrip Dale Earnhardt, Inc. Chevrolet 15.297 125.436 2999 Jeff Burton Roush Racing Ford 15.303 125.387 3038 Elliott Sadler Robert Yates Racing Ford 15.304 125.379 3177 Dave Blaney Jasper Motorsports Ford 15.314 125.297 3245 Kyle Petty Petty Enterprises Dodge 15.317 125.273 3311 Brett Bodine Brett Bodine Racing Ford 15.317 125.573 3421 Ricky Rudd Wood Brothers Racing Ford 15.341 125.077 351 Steve Park Dale Earnhardt, Inc. Chevrolet 15.348 125.020 3631 Robby Gordon Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet 15.354 124.971 3717 Matt Kenseth Roush Racing Ford 15.447 124.218 3888 Dale Jarrett Robert Yates Racing Ford 15.435 124.315 3941 Casey Mears Chip Ganassi Racing Dodge 15.418 124.452 4023 Kenny Wallace Bill Davis Racing Dodge 15.383 124.735 4154 Todd Bodine BelCar Racing Ford 15.514 123.682 420 Jack Sprague Haas CNC Racing Pontiac 15.600 123.000 4343 John Andretti Petty Enterprises Dodge 15.448 124.210 4414 Larry Foyt A. J. Foyt Enterprises Ford 15.598 123.016 4502 Hermie Sadler SCORE Motorsports Pontiac 15.481 123.946
Race The race began at 1:00pm EST and was televised live in the United States on Fox. Commentary was provided by Mike Joy, Larry McReynolds, and Darrell Waltrip. At the start of the race, weather conditions were sunny and warm. Reverend Mike Rife, of the Vansant Church of Christ in Vansant, Virginia, began pre-race ceremonies with an invocation. Country music singer Rebecca Lynn Howard performed the national anthem, and representatives of the United States Armed Forces commanded the drivers to start their engines. During the pace laps, McMurray had to move to the rear of the grid because of him changing his engine.
Jeff Gordon accelerated faster than Newman off the line, getting ahead of him by the first turn. Rusty Wallace passed Newman for the second position one lap later. On the third lap, the first caution was given when Robby Gordon made contact with Petty, forcing him to spin sideways. Robby Gordon was cautioned for the collision. Kenny Wallace also made contact with Ricky Rudd, but escaped with minor damage. None of the drivers made pit stops during the caution. Jeff Gordon led the field back up to speed at the restart on lap seven. Jeremy Mayfield made contact with the wall leaving the second turn at around the tenth lap, and suffered a flat front right tire. No caution was given. Four laps later, Michael Waltrip experienced oversteer and collided with Dave Blaney. Jarrett had no room to negotiate through and struck the rear of Waltrip's car. The incident prompted the race's second caution. Waltrip's car suffered heavy damage to the rear end of his car.
Almost immediately after the lap 20 restart, Andretti collided with the slowing Bodine, who in turn, struck Petty. Mears had no space to pass by and struck Andretti. The accident caused the event's third caution. Andretti's car sustained major damage to the front end. The race restarted on lap 29, with Rusty Wallace claiming the lead. One lap later, Busch and Stewart passed Schrader for seventh and eighth respectively. Earnhardt moved into third after passing Skinner on lap 33. One lap later, Jeff Gordon reclaimed the first position. On the 42nd lap, Earnhardt passed Rusty Wallace for second. Thirteen laps later, Tony Raines stopped on track due to an engine failure, and the fourth caution was given as a result. All of the leaders elected to make pit stops during the caution. Jeff Gordon maintained his lead at the restart on the 64th lap, followed by Terry Labonte and Green.