2002 Mountain Dew Southern 500

February 2025 April 2026 NASWINSTON Mountain Dew Southern 500 2002 09 1 2002 25 36 2002_Southern_500_program_cover_and_logo.jpg 2002 Southern 500 program cover Mountain Dew Southern 500 Darlington Raceway, Darlington County, South Carolina 1.366 2.198 367 501.322 806.800 Temperatures hovering around 80.6 F C; wind speeds gusting up to 11.3 mph km/hWeather information at The Old Farmers' Almanac 118.617 mi/h Sterling Marlin Chip Ganassi Racing Jeff Gordon Hendrick Motorsports 125 24 Jeff Gordon Hendrick Motorsports Turner Network Television Allen Bestwick, Benny Parsons and Wally Dallenbach Jr. The 2002 Mountain Dew Southern 500, the 53rd running of the event, was a NASCAR Winston Cup Series race held on September 1, 2002 at Darlington Raceway in Darlington, South Carolina. Contested over 367 laps on the 1.366 mi km off on speedway, it was the twenty-fifth race of the 2002 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season. Jeff Gordon of Hendrick Motorsports won the race. Background Darlington Raceway, nicknamed by many NASCAR fans and drivers as "The Lady in Black" or "The Track Too Tough to Tame" and advertised as a "NASCAR Tradition", is a race track built for NASCAR racing located near Darlington, South Carolina. It is of a unique, somewhat egg-shaped design, an oval with the ends of very different configurations, a condition which supposedly arose from the proximity of one end of the track to a minnow pond the owner refused to relocate. This situation makes it very challenging for the crews to set up their cars' handling in a way that will be effective at both ends. The track, Darlington Raceway, is a four-turn, 1.366 mi km off on oval. The track's first two turns are banked at twenty-five degrees, while the final two turns are banked two degrees lower at twenty-three degrees. Top 10 results Pos No. Car number Driver Team Manufacturer 1 24 Jeff Gordon Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 2 12 Ryan Newman Penske Racing Ford 3 9 Bill Elliott Evernham Motorsports Dodge 4 40 Sterling Marlin Chip Ganassi Racing Dodge 5 88 Dale Jarrett Robert Yates Racing Ford 6 22 Ward Burton Bill Davis Racing Dodge 7 97 Kurt Busch Roush Racing Ford 8 20 Tony Stewart Joe Gibbs Racing Pontiac 9 48 Jimmie Johnson Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 10 99 Jeff Burton Roush Racing Ford Race statistics Time of race: 4:13:35 Average speed: 118.617 mph Pole speed: no time trials Cautions: 9 for 63 laps Margin of victory: 1.734 seconds Lead changes: 14 Percent of race run under caution: 17.2% Average green flag run: 33.8 laps References 2002 Sharpie 500 2002 Chevrolet Monte Carlo 400 NASCAR Winston Cup Series 2002 Mountain Dew Southern 500 Mountain Dew Southern 500 Mountain Dew Southern 500 Category:NASCAR races at Darlington Raceway