I would probably connect it to a seperate port than your firepod.

cpu->Drive->Firepod(interface).

Not sure if this applys to the firepod, but Digidesign recommends this, because the 002r will not pass data thru its firewire port when its turned off.(why it has 2 firewire ports I have no idea)

I don't think there is any benefit latency wise with either configuration.