Craven win at Darlington in '03 top Cup race of decade

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Media members have selected the top races of the decade for all three national series as voted upon in a poll on NASCARMedia.com.

The list of races for the poll was compiled following discussions with the three series directors and other longtime observers in the industry -- and also resulted from direct input from NASCAR fans.

• The March 16, 2003 race at Darlington Raceway was voted the top NASCAR Cup Series race. In what is the closest Margin of Victory -- .002 seconds -- since the advent of electronic scoring in May 1993, Ricky Craven edged Kurt Busch to the finish line in that thriller. The Oct. 14, 2000 race at Talladega Superspeedway, which marked Dale Earnhardt's final career victory, came in second, followed by the March 11, 2001 event at Atlanta Motor Speedway, with Kevin Harvick getting his first Cup victory in a narrow defeat of Jeff Gordon.

• The Aug. 2, 2003 event at O'Reilly Raceway Park at Indianapolis was named the top Nationwide Series race. Brian Vickers battled Shane Hmiel in some closely contested, side-by-side racing to pick up his first career series victory. The July 2, 2004 race at Daytona International Speedway, which saw Mike Wallace navigate his way down the frontstretch to claim his first series win in 10 years, came in second. The Aug. 2, 2008 event at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal, where Canadian Ron Fellows won NASCAR's first national series points race on rain tires, was voted third.

• The top Truck Series race was the Feb. 18, 2005 event at Daytona International Speedway. The 2004 series champion, Bobby Hamilton, won by leading the last 2 feet. Jimmy Spencer mistakenly thought he had won the race and came to Victory Lane, when he in fact had finished second. The Nov. 14, 2003 race at Homestead-Miami Speedway came in second. Heading into the season finale, any one of the top four drivers in the point standings -- Brendan Gaughan, Ted Musgrave, Travis Kvapil and Dennis Setzer -- had a shot to win the championship. Kvapil took home his first NASCAR title after Gaughan was involved in an early wreck and Musgrave jumped a restart. Third-place honors went to the Feb. 16, 2007 race at Daytona, when three-time series champion Jack Sprague won following a three-wide race to the checkered flag.