NASCAR At Dover: Race Time, TV Info & Starting Lineup

The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series rolls into our area today for the FedEx 400 at Dover Downs Speedway. Coverage begins at 12:30 p.m. today on FOX.

Mark Martin earned the pole with a lap of 158.297 mph, marking his 5th pole at the Monster Mile. That ties him with Rusty Wallace for the most all time at the track. While Martin also had the fastest car in practice, he may not even be the favorite this afternoon. Denny Hamlin has recorded 4 top 5 finishes in his last 5 races and says his team is just about where they want it to be.

"We are getting there,'' he told NASCAR.com. "I'd say we are 75 percent of where we were as far as our strength to the field in 2010 to right now. I think we've identified the areas in which we need to improve that 25 percent. Everyone is going to work, everything is going well right now. There's really nothing in our outlook that looks grim in the sense of knowing that we're going to have good cars coming up here. Each and every week we're going to have a better car going to the race track. Everything looks good and I feel like there's no reason why we can't have four or five wins before we even get to the Chase."

Anyone who grew up going down to Dover will remember that it was always a 500 mile race, but in recent years has been cut down to 400. Bobby Labonte says that drivers prefer the shorter distance at the Monster Mile.

"It was fun to do but it was a lot of miles," Labonte said. "It's different now. Today's 400 laps here is equivalent to what 500 laps used to be. Then, you could stretch during the race -- not necessarily relax, but it was a long enough race where you could ride and then everybody would get back to it.

"Now, 400 laps is like qualifying."

Jeff Gordon says that modern technology in the cars has made the 400 miles at Dover even more demanding than the 500 mile race was.

"If it was hot, then yeah, those races could certainly get long and be an issue, but you didn't drive the cars as hard, either," Gordon said. "You really just had to pace yourself. The car's limit was just so much less.

"A lot of times you were getting top-fives, top-10s, and sometimes even wins based on attrition, based on being patient, based on not over-driving the car. Now, if you don't push the car to the extreme and over-drive it, you're not going to find yourself in a position to win."

Here is the starting lineup for today's NASCAR race at Dover International Speedway from SBNation.com

1. Mark Martin
2. Jimmie Johnson
3. Ryan Newman
4. Clint Bowyer
5. Matt Kenseth
6. Kevin Harvick
7. Greg Biffle
8. Kyle Busch
9. Kurt Busch
10. Denny Hamlin
11. Joey Logano
12. Aric Almirola
13. Kasey Kahne
14. Jeff Gordon
15. Jeff Burton
16. Brad Keselowski
17. Dale Earnhardt Jr.
18. Martin Truex Jr.
19. Carl Edwards
20. Paul Menard
21. Marcos Ambrose
22. Bobby Labonte
23. AJ Allmendinger
24. Jamie McMurray
25. Scott Speed
26. Regan Smith
27. Landon Cassill
28. David Ragan
29. Tony Stewart
30. David Gilliland
31. Juan Pablo Montoya
32. David Stremme
33. Michael McDowell
34. JJ Yeley
35. Joe Nemechek
36. Mike Bliss
37. Stephen Leicht
38. Reed Sorenson
39. David Reutimann
40. Casey Mears
41. Dave Blaney
42. Travis Kvapil
43. Scott Riggs