cat shot already????

earlier today my ses light came on. took it to autozone to have it plugged in and came up as threshold bank 1 catalitic converter. i only have 60,078 miles on my 02 gt. when i have it in park and give it gas i can here pops and pinging coming from the cat. is it shot already? i was also told that on any vehicle newer than a 95 has a 8 year 80,000 mile warranty on the exhaust system. is this true? if it is how would i go about getting it replaced?

It could easily be shot by now, my Dad's bonneville had a bad cat at around the same time. Just go to the dealer and tell them your cat is bad and it's still under warranty (which it is). They shouldn't give you any problems. Good Luck.