Al Grillo / AP

Jeff King, of Denali Park, Alaska, holds his lead dogs Salem, left, and Bronte at the finish line in Nome, Alaska.

At 50, King is the oldest musher to win the world’s longest sled dog race. He previously won the race in 1993, ’96 and ’98.

“It seemed like I was due. It’s really good to be here again,” King said.

For winning the Iditarod, King received $69,000 and a new truck. The top 30 finishers split a pot of $795,000. Another $40,000 will be divided between remaining arrivals to Nome.

King and Swingley traded the lead a few times during the third quarter of the Iditarod, but Swingley’s team faded on Sunday as the two veteran mushers left the wind-whipped town of Unalakleet, the first race stop on the Bering Sea coast.

Swingley’s bold push to catch King on the Yukon River likely sapped the energy of his team. King said he suspected Swingley’s dogs might be slowing down as the teams came off the Yukon River at Kaltag, about 350 miles from Nome.

The Iditarod passes through 24 checkpoints in villages and wilderness cabins strung along the trail, which meanders over two steep mountain ranges, the wide, windy Yukon River, and a final stretch up the iced-in Bering Sea coast.

Deep, soft snow covered much of this year’s trail, which has been bare ground in many spots in recent years. Windblown snow on the Yukon nearly obscured the trail in some places, discouraging even the snowmobile drivers who break trail ahead of the dog teams.

But winds were unusually light for front-runners navigating the Bering Sea coast, with the exception of ripping gusts near Unalakleet. Temperatures dipped to minus 45 degrees at the halfway checkpoint of Cripple.

Paul Gebhardt of Kasilof, who finished ninth last year, arrived third in Nome at 5:23 a.m., followed by cancer survivor DeeDee Jonrowe, 51, of Willow, who has raced 23 times and has 13 top-10 finishes. John Baker of Kotzebue arrived fifth. Bjornar Andersen of Norway, nephew of last year’s champion, Robert Sorlie, arrived sixth.

Sorlie, a two-time champ who plans to return to the race next year, has been following his nephew along the trail and tucking away information about his competitors’ strategies.

“I’m watching,” he said. “I’m learning.”

Sorlie, also of Norway, was barred by race rules from coaching his nephew along the trail.

Eighty-three mushers started this year’s race and 11 have scratched so far. Most mushers were still working their way up the trail as of Wednesday and will trickle into town through early next week. The farthest back was rookie Ben Valks of Norway, who was in the Yukon River checkpoint of Galena, about 450 miles from Nome.

Rookie Rachael Scdoris of Bend, Ore., could be the first legally blind musher to finish. Scdoris, 21, who scratched last year in her first attempt, was in 58th place on Wednesday near Unalakleet, about 260 miles from the finish. Tim Osmar, a top-20 finisher from last year, is guiding her along the trail.

The race officially started March 5 in Willow. The ceremonial start was held a day earlier in downtown Anchorage. It commemorates a dogsled relay in 1925 that carried serum 674 miles from Nenana to Nome to stop a diphtheria outbreak.

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