Petit, who finished second last year and third in 2017, has competed every year since 2011. He is known for his fast finishes, having recorded the fastest time from the Safety checkpoint to the race finish in Nome twice, in 2017 and 2018.

Zirkle, the only woman to win the 1,000-mile Yukon Quest, finished second three years in a row, 2012–2014 and has raced every year since 2001. She was first in to Ophir, the checkpoint before Iditarod, but Petit was first out.

Ulsom, the 2018 champion, has raced the past six years and placed in the top seven each year. In 2012, he became the first non-native winner of Russia's Nadezhda Hope race, a long-distance sled dog race billed as the toughest in Eurasia; he won that race again in 2014, setting the course record.

Buser first raced the Iditarod in 1980. He won in 1992, 1994, 1997, and 2002.

A total of 58 teams set out from Willow four days ago. The race finishes in Nome. The course record is 8 days, 3 hours, 40 minutes, 13 seconds, set by Mitch Seavey in 2017.