During this season of rain delays and washed out practices, the sun shining in a clear blue sky was a welcome change for the Sirius 400 at Michigan International Speedway. Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Bobby Labonte and Tony Stewart dominated Friday's qualifying session, claiming the first and second starting spots. Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kurt Busch followed. Current points leader Matt Kenseth qualified deep in the field in the 21st spot. Christian Fittipaldi, making his first start as the driver of the Petty owed Cheerios Dodge, qualified 36th.

Labonte also outpaced the rest of the field during the final practice, posting the quickest lap times of the hour-long session. The practice session was marred by a spectacular crash that send Brett Bodine to the infield care center, and then on to a local hospital where x-rays revealed a broken clavicle. The oldest of the Bodine brothers, Geoffrey Bodine, took the wheel of his younger brother's backup car for the race on Sunday.

The 200 lap event rolled to a start in front of a near sellout crowd, only to be slowed almost immediately by the first caution of the day, when Ricky Rudd and Ken Schrader got together in turn one on the second lap, sending Rudd spinning into the outside wall as Schrader slid down the track. Under the caution, Dale Earnhardt Jr., who started at the back of the field after once again encountering last minute engine troubles, made two pit stops and restarted from the tail end of the field. Tony Stewart led the lap 6 restart, having overtaken his teammate for the lead just before the caution.

Another short caution came after a lap 11 incident involving Dave Blaney, who pitted under the yellow flag and rejoined the race. On lap 37, Ryan Newman's car caught fire as he raced Tony Stewart for the top spot. He brought the car to a stop in turn 3, after trailing smoke along the backstretch, and clambered out of the still blazing car. Newman was treated in the infield care center for inhalation and released. The clean up efforts slowed the race for ten laps, and much of the field took the opportunity to come to pit road.

After another caution on lap 49, this time for Steve Park as his recent run of tough luck continued with a brush with the outside wall, Sterling Marlin took the lead from Stewart and drove off from the field. Marlin held the lead through two more cautions to lead a race high 102 laps, before a problem on the lap 163 restart caused him to drop off the pace, sliding back to 14th before recovering. Jeff Gordon took advantage of Marlin's bad luck to take the top spot.

With 24 laps to go, Kurt Busch went around Gordon to take the lead and drove off to a lead of several car lengths. A late caution, following Todd Bodine's crash in turn two, brought the field back together behind the pace car, and gave Bobby Labonte a shot at reclaiming the lead on the restart to score his 4th career victory at Michigan, but Busch was able to hold him off for the remaining laps, and took the checkered flag on his 3rd victory of the 2003 season. In victory lane, he said of his season thus far "We're hot and we're rolling. We've also got a team that has learned from some mistakes" This win puts him 342 points behind Matt Kenseth in the standings, in a solid 5th place.

Unofficial Results

• Kurt Busch
• Bobby Labonte
• Jeff Gordon
• Matt Kenseth
• Michael Waltrip
• Sterling Marlin
• Dale Earnhardt Jr.
• Tony Stewart
• Mark Martin
• Terry Labonte

Unofficial Standings

• Matt Kenseth
• Dale Earnhardt Jr. -185
• Jeff Gordon -223
• Bobby Labonte -277
• Kurt Busch -342
• Michael Waltrip -375
• Jimmie Johnson -422
• Rusty Wallace -477
• Sterling Marlin -492
• Mark Martin -535