Mitch Seavey and 10 dogs crossed the Nome finish line to cheering crowds at 10:39 p.m.
Everyone has to take the second 8-hour layover at the checkpoint at White Mountain, 77 miles from Nome.
En route to Nome, the race turned into an aggressively contested run among veterans along an often punishing trail.
The front-runners are expected to reach the Nome finish line early next week.
Seavey's victory came after a dueling sprint against Aliy Zirkle, last year's runner-up, along the frozen, wind-whipped Bering Sea coast toward Nome.
Last year's Iditarod Champion, John Baker, made it to Nome with a record-setting pace -- 8 days, 18 hours and 46 minutes.
The Gold Rush-era town of Nome is the end of the trail where the famous Iditarod "burled arch" forms the finish line.
Saturday to begin the 60-mile run to the next checkpoint at Kaltag, which is 346 miles from the race's finishing point in Nome.
Hotels in Nome, however, are scarce and must be booked months in advance for die-hard fans and visitors hoping to be present when the leaders arrive.
The diphtheria serum Nome's doctor had requested was not delivered, and as winter ice set in, the area was cut off from the rest of the world.
NOME, Alaska (AP) A 53-year-old former champion has won the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race to become the oldest winner of Alaska's grueling test of endurance.
Buser tried a strategy early in the race that had many competitors shaking their heads, but he was hoping it would pay off by letting him get to Nome first.
From Willow, where the race clock starts ticking, mushers and their dog teams will begin making their way through unforgiving wilderness toward the finish line in the old frontier town of Nome on Alaska's western coast.
"When you increase the shrub cover you trap more snow, which keeps the soil warmer, " said Sturm, calling by cellphone 70 miles east of Nome, Alaska, in a small village that serves as his base to study seasonal snow changes.
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