The 2002 Mountain Dew Southern 500 was a Winston Cup (now Nextel Cup) event held at Darlington Raceway on September 1, 2002. Jeff Gordon, one week after snapping a 31-race winless streak, won his second straight race. Gordon led the most laps and pulled away to a 1.7-second victory on Ryan Newman. Gordon also closed in on the points lead, now just 91 markers behind Sterling Marlin (4th). Stats