The Last Great Race has its first six-time champion. Dallas Seavey has broken the all-time record for Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race wins, mushing to Nome and into the history books on Tuesday, March 12.
Seavey, 37, and his 10-dog team arrived under the famed Burled Arch finish line at 5:16 p.m. to a cheering crowd of onlookers enjoying the evening sunshine. By getting here first yet again, Seavey has broken a tie with five-time champion Rick Swenson.
Seavey’s team completed the 1,000-mile trail in nine days, two hours and 16 minutes. That time includes a two-hour penalty race officials added to Seavey’s mandatory 24-hour layover for failing to adequately gut a moose he shot after it attacked his team earlier in the race.
It’s Seavey’s 14th attempt at the Iditarod, a race from which he has never scratched. He hasn’t finished outside the top 10 since his sophomore effort in 2007. Seavey’s prior wins came in 2021, 2016, 2015, 2014 and 2012.
In White Mountain, Seavey had said that he was trying to live in the moment, but that a sixth win was something that he had dreamed about.
“It’s what you dream of all year long, what you daydream of all year long as you prepare this team and train them,” Seavey said. “So on one hand, yeah, it’s easy to drift into the future and say, ‘Is this really real?’ you know. ‘Are we actually going to get number six?’ And then you kind of have to pull yourself back.”
Seavey has touted his dogs’ pedigree, many are Iditarod finishers related to those on his past Iditarod championship teams, but he also comes from a family of deep mushing roots. His grandfather, Dan, placed third in the first Iditarod in 1973. His father, Mitch, has won three Iditarod championships and holds the record as the fastest musher to complete the race. That feat came in 2017, although the Iditarod was on an alternate route that year that officially started in Fairbanks.
This year was a bit slower compared to past Iditarod races. A hefty dose of snow south of the Alaska Range put the damper on teams’ speeds early on. Later it was cold, down to 45 below zero, requiring more attention to dog care and shelter at times.
Seavey took command of the race, bouncing back from the penalty in Unalakleet when he blew through the checkpoint on March 10 while that day’s frontrunner, Jessie Holmes, rested.
In White Mountain, the checkpoint 77 miles from the finish line, Seavey said that he races the Iditarod because he loves mushing.
“You know, the race gives us a reason to do it well,” Seavey said. “I don’t do this because of the race. I do this because I love this, and I love the experience of training dogs and developing them. The race gives us a purpose to do it to the best of our ability every single day.”
