The 2003 MBNA America 400 was the 28th stock car race of the 2003 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season and the 35th iteration of the event. The race was held on Sunday, September 21, 2003, before a crowd of 137,000 in Dover, Delaware at Dover International Speedway, a 1-mile (1.6 km) permanent oval-shaped racetrack. The race took the scheduled 400 laps to complete. At race's end, Ryan Newman of Penske Racing South would come back from two laps down and save fuel at the end to win his eighth career NASCAR Winston Cup Series win and his seventh win of the season. To fill out the podium, Jeremy Mayfield of Evernham Motorsports and Tony Stewart of Joe Gibbs Racing would finish second and third, respectively.