Monster Jam World Finals 3 was held on March 23, 2002 at Sam Boyd Stadium. Tom Meents in Team Meents would end up sweeping the event once again. This show was also the debut for the Hot Wheels monster truck. This was also the last World Finals to be broadcasted live on Pay-Per-View.
The track layout was the same as the last two years racing-wise, with a massive jump with a bus on top in the middle, a bus stack and a sea container on the left, and a 30-foot tall trailer and another bus stack on the right.
For freestyle, a camper on a flatbed trailer would be added at the right lane entrance. Two cars would be added to the left lane entrance, and numerous additional cars and vans were added to the racing car pads and several motorhomes were added to the course as well.
Lineup
Black Stallion - Michael Vaters
Bounty Hunter - Jimmy Creten (World Finals Debut)
Firemouth - Carl Van Horn (World Finals Debut)
Grave Digger 20th Anniversary - Dennis Anderson
Power Forward - Chad Fortune (World Finals Debut)
Racing Round 1
Team Meents vs. Blue Thunder (DNS)
Madusa vs. Gunslinger
Bulldozer vs. Power Forward (crashes)
Grave Digger 20th Anniversary vs. Black Stallion (Red Lighted)
Black Smith vs. Firemouth
Hot Wheels vs. Predator
Sudden Impact vs. Avenger (crashes)
Wolverine vs. Bounty Hunter
Racing Round 2
Team Meents vs. Gunslinger
Grave Digger 20th Anniversary vs. Bulldozer (crashes)
Black Smith vs. Hot Wheels (crashes)
Sudden Impact vs. Bounty Hunter
Racing Semi Finals
Team Meents vs. Grave Digger 20th Anniversary
Black Smith vs. Bounty Hunter
Championship Race
Team Meents (crashes) vs. Bounty Hunter
Freestyle
Team Meents- 37 (crashes)
Grave Digger 20th Anniversary- 36 (crashes)
Black Smith- 35
Blue Thunder- 35 (crashes)
Black Stallion- 32
Wolverine- 30
Sudden Impact- 24
Firemouth- 24
Bounty Hunter- 22 (crashes)
Predator- 21
Gunslinger- 20
Madusa- 19 (crashes)
Hot Wheels- 17 (crashes)
Power Forward- 12 (crashes)
Bulldozer- 8 (crashes)
Avenger- 8 (crashes)
Encore
Wolverine, Bulldozer, Blacksmith, 2nd Grave Digger, and 2nd Team Meents (rear-engined) come out for an encore.
Other Rewards
- Rookie of the Year: Neil Elliott, High Roller
- Sportsman of the Year: Mike Nitzke, Rambo
- Improved Driver: Randy Brown, Pure Adrenaline
- Save of the Year: Charlie Pauken, Firemouth
- Wreck of the Year: Tony Farrell, Blue Thunder
- Team of the Year: Dawn Creten & Jimmy Creten, Scarlet Bandit & Bounty Hunter
- Upset of the Year: Carl Van Horn in Spider-Man defeating Team Meents in the finals in Tampa, Florida
Trivia
- This was the first World Finals event to have all the trucks in the field compete for freestyle.
- This was the first World Finals event where a certain monster truck was unable to compete for racing (Blue Thunder).
- Bulldozer's freestyle was not seen on the VHS and DVD releases, and was only seen on the Pay-Per View broadcast of the event. He did a wheelie, which caused him to hit a van and roll over.
- This was the only World Finals appearance of Team Meents and Firemouth.
- This event marks Gun Slinger's last World Finals appearance in freestyle until Monster Jam World Finals 11 in 2010 when it returned with a different body design. In Monster Jam World Finals 4 and 6, the old version's motor was blown in racing.
- Avenger, Blue Thunder, Firemouth, and Power Forward all crashed in qualifying, yet both Avenger and Power Forward did make qualifying times.
- This was the last event to take place during the TNN era as in 2003, Monster Jam moved to SPEED Channel.
- This is the first event to feature drivers in the broadcast booth during racing and freestyle. In this event, drivers such as Tom Meents, Madusa (Debra Miceli), Lyle Hancock, Jim Koehler, and others joined in. One driver who wasn't in the field, Dawn Creten (driver of Scarlet Bandit, which was only displayed at the pit party) also joined in during Bounty Hunter's freestyle run.
- This was the first time in qualifying that the trucks ran the track without any of their fiberglass body panels, a tradition that continues to this day.
- This is the only World Finals to date to have the racing champion (Team Meents) crash in racing. The truck crashed after a failed donut attempt after the race.
Non Competing Trucks
Second Blue Thunder
Multiple Grave Diggers
Unknown FELD truck (chassis used for rear-engined Team Meents)