Hendrick Motorsports

DARLINGTON, S.C. (Aug. 31, 2002)—Jeff Gordon was the fastest Hendrick Motorsports driver during the final Mountain Dew Southern 500 “Happy Hour” practice at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway, posting the third-quickest time of the day’s second 45-minute session.

The defending NASCAR Winston Cup Series champion had a quick lap of 30.205 seconds and 162.807 mph in the No. 24 DuPont Chevrolet, identical to the numbers of rookie Ryan Newman, who shared third.

Driving the No. 48 Lowe’s Chevy, Jimmie Johnson was eighth in the session, followed by 14th-place Joe Nemechek in the No. 25 UAW-Delphi Monte Carlo and 32nd-place Terry Labonte in No. 5 Kellogg’s Chevrolet.

Kurt Busch paced Happy Hour with a fast lap of 30.058 seconds and 163.604 mph.

In Saturday’s first practice, Johnson was ninth, Gordon 25th, Nemechek 29th and Labonte 39th.

Ryan Newman was fastest in the early session with a lap of 29.732 seconds and 165.398 mph.