Question : DNS Requests  and TRACERT

I recently took over all of the IT duties at my work and I'm stumped with a simple question.

We have one DC (AD, DNS, Windows 2000 Server), one firewall (Watchguard), and a Cisco router.  The DNS includes one forwarder.  Each machine has the DC listed as the primary DNS and no secondary DNS.

When I run a TRACERT command for any web site, the result is as follows:

Hop 1 - Firewall
Hop 2 - Router
Hop 3 - External IP address (always the same)
Hop 4 - etc, etc, etc.

Where does my DNS server come into play in the above sequence?  

Does the request leave my PC, hit the DNS server, and then hit the firewall?  

Is tracert just not showing that step?  

For hop 3, the IP address is always the same and based on my research, this hop is set within the Cisco router settings.  Hop 3 is NOT the IP address of my forwarder.  So where does my forwarder come into play?

Answer : DNS Requests  and TRACERT

Your DNS is only responsible for resolving domain names to ip addresses.No packages are routed over your dns server.