|| *Comments on the 2003 MBNA America 400:* View the most recent comment <#31> | Post a comment <#post> Tweet 1. Jake Kane posted: 04.12.2005 - 5:25 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Ryan took advantage of the lucky dog, topping off his fuel cell under caution 2. WIT4 posted: 01.09.2006 - 7:37 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Dale Jr. had a huge crash with the wall on lap 362 which required him to be transported on an ambulance. It's always the "soft" crashes that will get you. 3. DaleJrfan14 posted: 06.01.2006 - 8:46 pm Rate this comment: (0) (1) yup lets name them off Jimmy Pardue1964 Billy Wade 1965 Larry Smith 1970 Niel Bonnet 1994 Tony Roper 2000 Dale Earnheardt 2001 Sterling Marlin 2002 Tony Stewart 2006 injured 4. Steve posted: 07.07.2006 - 7:05 pm Rate this comment: (3) (1) This was the first race with the ridiculous "freezing of the field" and "lucky dogs". Also people were really starting to whine and complain about Matt Kenseth's 400+ point lead. Richard Petty won the Winston Cup in 1975 by more than 600 points. Dale Earnhardt won it in 1994 by more than 400 points. Nobody complained about the point system then! Why now? At this point, Matt had 22 Top 10s in 28 races. Championship material. 5. Miller4Prez64 posted: 07.15.2006 - 2:47 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Because there wasn't much nascar fans then, lol. Ryan Newman sweeps Dover in 2003, like Jimmie Johnson did in 2002. 6. Steve posted: 08.18.2006 - 2:35 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) The NBC commentators got the "lucky dog" name because during the race, Jimmy Spencer got the free pass, and since his sponsor was Sirius Satellite Radio, the car featured Dee-Jay Mongo-Bot, a dog (their mascot). 7. Anonymous posted: 11.19.2006 - 6:39 pm Rate this comment: (1) (0) Qualifying was cancelled due to Hurricane Isabel. 8. Mike posted: 01.26.2007 - 11:20 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Todd Bodine became the first driver to ever be the lucky dog. 9. Dan posted: 04.19.2007 - 6:12 pm Rate this comment: (2) (0) "yup lets name them off Jimmy Pardue1964 Billy Wade 1965 Larry Smith 1970 Niel Bonnet 1994 Tony Roper 2000 Dale Earnheardt 2001 Sterling Marlin 2002 Tony Stewart 2006 injured" This is one of the dumbest comments I've ever read. Just because a car doesn't go flipping and flying into pieces doesn't mean it's a soft crash. If you've seen video of Tony Roper's crash, you know it was anything but a "soft crash" 10. SK posted: 06.26.2009 - 3:57 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) And Sterling's not dead. 11. 3man posted: 05.04.2010 - 1:36 pm Rate this comment: (1) (0) How come no talks about the race...I'm begining to think this post is only for those that want to complain, or sound stupid. What a great battle between the #12 & #19 over the last 25 laps. I thought Mayfield had his first win since 2000 in the bag, but Newman held him off! 12. most posted: 05.31.2010 - 12:57 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Jeff Green takes over the 43 for Fittipaldi. 13. Chris posted: 07.05.2010 - 5:16 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Just to clarify what WIT4 said, Dale Jr was actually transported to the hospital by the Delaware State Police helicopter. I remember sitting in turn 4, right where the helicopter is in the infield, and he climbed inside on his own power and once the helicopter was taking off he waved to the fans. What an intense race for the lead during the very closing stages. It looked like Mayfield had Newman beat but Newman kept taking the high line off of the corners to get a great run off of the corners and pull away. Great battle, out of the 20 or so Cup races I've been to at Dover, the finish of this race ranks among the top 3 or 4. 14. Steve posted: 01.07.2011 - 9:06 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) I suggest another name for the "beneficiary rule": The NASCAR Bailout. The driver receiving it did nothing positive to deserve it, so giving the driver a lap back for no reason is rewarding their failure (whether they had an unscheduled stop, a spin, a penalty, or simply got lapped, they failed to stay in the lead lap). I've seen drivers TAKE their lap (or laps) back and win; Awesome Bill, Geoff Bodine, Mark Martin, and Kevin Harvick (Busch race) to name a few that I know of. They didn't need no stinkin' bailout! Also, Jacques Villeneuve made up two laps in the 1995 Indy 500, Allan McNish did so at the 2008 Petit Le Mans after a warmup accident, and the late Jim Clark made up a lap after a flat tire, retook the lead, but ran out of fuel before the checkers and finished 3rd in the 1967 Italian GP. You're right, 3man, it was an exciting final part of the race. Jeremy had finished 2nd to Newman two weeks before at Richmond, so you know he didn't want a repeat of that if he could help it! 15. Evan posted: 11.03.2011 - 12:56 pm Rate this comment: (1) (0) Jeremy was notceably upset about finishing second, also this prompted the rule where you can't top the fuel off on your initial go round to get the lucky dog. Newman employed the strategy of doing it while getting his lap back. Now lucky dogs can't pit under their lap, they have to run one more lap, then pit. Newman essentially had enough fuel to make it to the win. Newman benefitted from a great deal of fuel mileage and pit strategy. Had he had a few more top tens he would have had a title. The points should have read Matt Kenseth(duh) Everyone else(too far behind and EXTREMELY too far behind) 16. Nate posted: 04.12.2012 - 8:37 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Race should be called MBNA America 400. Not the Dover 400. 17. CBASS posted: 01.17.2013 - 5:21 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Sponsor updates # Sirius #97 Rubbermaid Brute/ Sharpie #15 NAPA Auto Parts #21 U.S. Air Force #23 Stacker 2 Stinger #12 Sony Handyman/ Wega #0 NetZero Hi-Speed #45 Georgia-Pacific/ Brawny http://archives.ciastockphoto.com/cgi/images.php?group=w0329 18. Nascar Lead Lap Points posted: 08.02.2014 - 11:11 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Withdrew 79 Rich Bickle SBC / Molykote John Conely Chevrolet 91 Shane Hmiel Evernham Motorsports Ray Evernham Dodge DOWN TO 49: #79-Rich Bickle and #91-Shane Hmiel have been lopped off the entry list, so we are down to 49 teams/drivers entered, 46 are eligible for a provisional, so they would be charged unless 3 more teams drop out.(9-16-2003) Sponsor Update #71 ARAN Trading 19. Big Mac Fan posted: 11.15.2015 - 1:07 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) He slumped near the end, but at his current rate, Kenseth was going to clinch the title with almost three races left. Matt definetly ran way with 2003. 20. SpiderTre posted: 11.19.2015 - 3:53 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Waltrip slipped out of the top 10 in points for the first time all season after this race 21. Matt posted: 02.24.2019 - 10:43 am Rate this comment: (1) (0) One of NASCAR on NBC's ways of communicating with the fans in 2003 was the "Cingular Wireless Poll", where you texted the answer to their poll question. Interestingly, only fans with Cingular Wireless cell phones could participate. With NASCAR implementing the Field Is Frozen & Lucky Dog rules, this race's poll question was "What do you think of NASCAR's ban on racing back to the line under the yellow flag?" A-- The Right Move (45%) B-- Drivers Should Have Tried To Police Themselves Better (28%) C-- Unfair To Drivers A Lap Down (27%) 22. Anonymous posted: 06.10.2019 - 6:45 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) First Race with Brian France as chairman and ceo 23. TheDewCrew posted: 07.31.2019 - 10:50 am Rate this comment: (2) (0) This was the first time in 2003, that Michael Waltrip hadn't been top 10 in points. That's amazing given he would be fighting just to make races in a couple of years 24. SweetRich21/43 posted: 07.23.2020 - 1:49 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) The commentators were Allen Bestwick, Benny Parsons and Wally Dallenbach. The pit road reporters were Bill Weber, Matt Yocum, Marty Snider and Dave Burns. 25. Mile501 posted: 11.02.2020 - 2:20 pm Rate this comment: (1) (0) As I have been re-watching the 2003 season, I have realized that Matt Kenseth didn't exactly sit the world on fire, especially during the middle and latter parts of the season. The main reason he built up such a huge point lead was partially because he was rather consistent, but also because his main competitors kept having problems. At the halfway point of the season, Kenseth's point lead was a strong, but not insurmountable, 165 points. Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Bobby Labonte, and Michael Waltrip ranked 2nd-5th in points. Then, over the next couple of months... Earnhardt Jr. had 3 crash DNFs and other races where his team just made poor strategy calls. He lost 9 laps at Darlington due to a silly mechanical problem. Gordon had a terrible stretch, finishing 24th or worse in 6 out of 7 races between Loudon and Darlington. 4 of those were crash DNFs. Twice, he led more than 1/3 of a race but had nothing to show for it. Labonte had 9 finishes of 14th or worse in an 11-race stretch from Chicagoland to Dover, including 2 engine failures. Waltrip, who had a very strong and consistent first half of 2003, began to struggle when he finished 28th at Loudon. Then he had 5 straight finishes of 26th or worse between Bristol and Dover. During many of these races, Kenseth ran midpack, but his team would get his car better throughout the race and minimized their mistakes while all of his competitors encountered repeated problems. 26. Mile501 posted: 11.02.2020 - 2:29 pm Rate this comment: (1) (0) A couple of interesting comments from NBC's pre-race show from this race, regarding the new rule about not racing back to the caution flag: "We're gonna have to wing this. We don't have all the technology we have to have right now to do this. But drivers have put NASCAR in a position to make something harder than it's ought to be. We've done it. Unfortunately the technology's not available right now to be able to truly lock us in. They're just going to have to make their best judgment call and that's all they can do. And if they do it wrong, at the end of the day, it's the driver's fault for not doing the gentlemen's agreement." - Jeff Burton "It seemed that there was something going on weekly--too many guys racing after the caution had come out for spots back in the field. And I think NASCAR had seen all that, and guys just wern't being reasonable. So they had warned us that, if we didn't shape up, then it was going to be taken away from us. Sometimes they have to treat us like kids because that's the way that we act." - Dale Jarrett 27. JG24Ever posted: 11.02.2020 - 3:56 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) The 25-lap caution was because of repairs to the wall in turn 1 where Joe Nemechek hit the wall hard. 28. Mile501 posted: 11.04.2020 - 2:37 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) I would like to correct comment #6. The free pass became known as the "lucky dog award" simply because Wally Dallenbach started calling it that the very first time it was given. Under the second caution, when Allen Bestwick had just explained that Todd Bodine received the first free pass, Benny Parsons said, "How cool is that, Wally?" And Wally responded, "That's the lucky dog award. He's the first lucky dog." Jimmy Spencer did get a free pass later in the race as well, and they made special reference to his sponsor's mascot dog Mongo at that time. But Wally had already begun calling it the "lucky dog award" prior to that. 29. possum posted: 11.04.2020 - 6:23 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) @28 - it might also be noted that NASCAR hated that name, and did what they could to discourage it. Parsons and Dallenbach basically just ignored NASCAR. FOX, on the other hand, immediately folded under pressure and just called it the free pass. 30. Mile501 posted: 11.04.2020 - 7:04 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) @29 - Interesting; I had never heard that side of the story! Thanks for sharing. 31. Evan posted: 11.05.2020 - 1:43 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Then later on, Aaron's took advantage of this and called the Aaron's Lucky dog and had a giant dog mascot. The Truck Series would do it frequently when Michael Waltrip was on the announce team. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *Post a comment:* Your comment may not appear immediately - all comments must be approved by the moderator. Name: Comment: