The official Daytona International Speedway logo.
The 2002 Daytona 500, the 44th running of the event, was held on February 17 at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida as the first of 36 races of the 2002 Winston Cup Season. Rookie Jimmie Johnson, driving the No. 48 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports, won the pole with fellow Daytona 500 rookie Kevin Harvick qualifying second and veteran Dale Earnhardt qualified third. making this the first time the field would be led by two first-time Daytona 500 participants. Dale Earnhardt, driving the No.3 Chevrolet for Richard Childress, won the race. This race was the last Daytona 500 for long-time veteran driver Dave Marcis.
As part of the television contract signed at the end of the 2000 NASCAR season, the 2002 Daytona 500 was televised by NBC. Allen Bestwick provided the play-by-play in the booth with color commentators Benny Parsons and Wally Dallenbach, Jr. The prerace show was hosted by Bill Weber, who reported from the pits with Matt Yocum, Marty
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Diecast of Dale Sr.'s 2002 paint scheme, which debuted as a special paint scheme at the 2001 Allstar race, but was used throughout 2002.
Snider, and Dave Burns. This was the first time NBC televised the Daytona 500.
Early favorite Tony Stewart was struck with an engine failure on lap 3. The race's first caution flew when Dale Earnhardt, Jr. (another favorite) ran over debris and cut a tire on lap 23 while running in second-place. He managed to come through the pack into the Top 10 with a new nose after the tire tore up the right-front fender. On lap 79, Dave Marcis's engine blew up causing him to exit the race, and this brought his last Daytona 500 to an end. Debris from the engine blowout caused a caution. On the following restart, Brett Bodine spun off of Kenny Wallace's bumper, and the yellow flag came back out for the fourth time.
On lap 138, rookie female driver Shawna Robinson and Mike Skinner touched exiting turn 2, bringing out the fifth caution of the day. But the course of the race took a twist on lap 148 when contact between Jeff Gordon and Kevin Harvick (both racing in the Top 5) triggered the "Big One", collecting 18 cars. Matt Kenseth, Ricky Rudd, Ken Schrader, John Andretti and Jerry Nadeau were some of the big names taken out. Earnhardt Jr. somehow got around the carnage. In a restart with five laps to go, 1997 and 1999 winner Jeff Gordon led 1994 and 1995 winner Sterling Marlin, with 1998 winner Dale Earnhardt following in third. A chain reaction began between the eighth and ninth positions after one driver missed a gear. Five cars were damaged, including the defending Daytona 500 winner Michael Waltrip, who spun into the pits and nearly hit the pace car being driven by Jay Leno. Up front, Marlin came through the gears a bit quicker than Gordon, and took his momentum to the inside. Gordon went to block only to turn himself and Marlin. The two incidents brought out the caution flag, but under the rules at the time the field continued racing at full speed back to the start/finish line, and Dale raced Ward Burton, who had been third when the wreck took place, back to the line. Marlin, his car smoking from damage to the right front fender, finally got his car running again, only for the red flag to come out. Rather than have the race finish under caution, the officials stopped the field on the backstretch so the track could be cleared and the drivers could race to the finish. Marlin got his car to the garage under it's own power. Dale and Ward Burton were first and second, racing side-by-side and trading paint all the way to the start-finish line. 1986 race winner Geoffrey Bodine was the feel-good story of the day, as he finished third just two years after a crash that nearly took his life in the Craftsman Truck Series' Daytona 250 at the same racetrack.
Dale's first place finish kept Dodge from having a win since Richard Petty's win in the 1974 race. This was, however, Phoenix Racing's best finish until Brad Keselowski won the 2009 Aaron's 499 at Talladega. As of 2017, this has been the only Daytona 500 to feature more than one trio of brothers. All three Bodine brothers (Geoff, Brett, and Todd) had started the Daytona 500 together, as had all three Wallace brothers (Rusty, Mike, and Kenny), but never all three brothers from both families in the same year. Dale drove down to victory lane and celebrated his second Daytona 500 win with Dale Jr. (who finished sixth himself) arriving to celebrate with his father.
This would be the last Daytona 500 of DEI driver Steve Park before his untimely death in an accident at Pocono later in the year.