page_title: 2002 Food City 500
section_title: Practice and qualification
hierarchical_section_title: 2002 Food City 500 / Report / Practice and qualification
caption_attribution_description: NASCAR driver en:Jeff Gordon in August 2007 at en:Bristol Motor Speedway. Cropped from original
context_page_description: The 2002 Food City 500 was the sixth stock car race of the 2002 NASCAR Winston Cup Series. It was held on March 24, 2002 at the Bristol Motor Speedway in Bristol, Tennessee. The 500-lap race was won by Kurt Busch of the Roush Racing team; Jimmy Spencer finished second and Ricky Rudd came in third.
context_section_description: Three practice sessions were held before the Sunday race—one on Friday and two on Saturday. The first session lasted 120 minutes, while the second and final sessions ran for 45 minutes. In the first practice session, Jeff Gordon was fastest, placing ahead of Jerry Nadeau in second and Skinner in third. Casey Atwood was fourth fastest, and Buckshot Jones placed fifth. Marlin, Kevin Harvick, Jeff Green, Bobby Hamilton, and Michael Waltrip rounded out the top ten fastest drivers in the session. During the session, Johnson crashed his car into the barriers, forcing him to use his back-up car for the remainder of the race weekend. Johnson was unhurt.
  All forty-three drivers entered qualifying. Jeff Gordon clinched his first pole position of the season and his first at the track, with a time of 15.083 seconds. The time also made a new track record. He was joined on the front row of the grid by Robby Gordon, in his best qualifying performance of the season. Jeremy Mayfield qualified third, Jimmy Spencer took fourth, and Skinner started fifth. Kenseth, Nadeau, Newman, Waltrip, and Sadler completed the top ten starting positions. During qualifying, Joe Nemechek spun during his attempt, though he managed to continue, and Jeff Burton's lap was delayed because of problems with his car's suspension. Once qualifying had concluded, J. Gordon said, "The first lap I was a little bit loose, and I said, ‘Boy, I better put it together on the second lap.' I made a really nice, smooth but pretty aggressive second lap. The momentum I carried got us a pole."
  Green was fastest in the second practice session on Saturday, ahead of Nadeau in second and Atwood in third. J. Gordon was the fourth quickest, and Robby Gordon took fifth. Ricky Rudd managed sixth. Martin, Tony Stewart, Skinner, and Jeff Burton followed in the top ten. Later that day, Nadeau was fastest with a time of 15.661. Stewart and Skinner followed in second and third with times of 15.779 and 15.786. Atwood was fourth quickest, just ahead of Green and Wallace. J. Gordon was the seventh fastest, Kenseth eighth, Harvick ninth, and Steve Park tenth. After the session ended, Stewart went to the Motor Racing Outreach trailer to undergo physical therapy having still suffering the effects from his crash at the previous race held at Darlington Speedway. His team had Todd Bodine to fill in should Stewart had been not ready to race.
caption: Jeff Gordon (pictured in 2007) won pole position with the fastest time, 15.083.
exif: {"Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Paint.NET v3.08"}