2002 Mountain Dew Southern 500
 | This article relies on a single source. (April 2026) |
| Race details | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Race 25 of 36 in the 2002 NASCAR Winston Cup Series | |||
 2002 Southern 500 program cover | |||
| Date | September 1, 2002 | ||
| Official name | Mountain Dew Southern 500 | ||
| Location | Darlington Raceway, Darlington County, South Carolina | ||
| Course | Permanent racing facility | ||
| Course length | 1.366 miles (2.198 km) | ||
| Distance | 367 laps, 501.322 mi (806.800 km) | ||
| Weather | Temperatures hovering around 80.6 °F (27.0 °C); wind speeds gusting up to 11.3 miles per hour (18.2 km/h)[1] | ||
| Average speed | 118.617 miles per hour (190.896 km/h) | ||
| Pole position | |||
| Driver | Chip Ganassi Racing | ||
| Most laps led | |||
| Driver | Jeff Gordon | Hendrick Motorsports | |
| Laps | 125 | ||
| Winner | |||
| No. 24 | Jeff Gordon | Hendrick Motorsports | |
| Television in the United States | |||
| Network | Turner Network Television | ||
| Announcers | 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-mile (2.198-kilometre) speedway, it was the twenty-fifth race of the 2002 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season. Jeff Gordon of Hendrick Motorsports won the race.
Background
[edit]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-mile (2.198-kilometre) 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
[edit]Race statistics
[edit]- Time of race: 4:13:35
- Average speed: 118.617 miles per hour (190.896 km/h)
- 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
[edit]- ↑ Weather information at The Old Farmers' Almanac