Martin captures the NSCS pole at Dover

[media-credit id=26 align=”alignright” width=”225″][/media-credit]Mark Martin captured the pole for Sunday’s FedEx 400 at Dover International Speedway with a lap of 158.297 mph.

“I knew the conditions were looser than they were in our mock qualifying run yesterday and I didn’t want to ask him because I didn’t want to get concerned. I knew that I only had to make it one mile without wrecking and I was going to drive to the limit and slightly beyond and I felt like I did that.” Martin said.

This was Martin’s 54th career Sprint Cup pole and the third of the season in just 10 race starts.

“I can’t sit on these poles without the fastest race car and MWR and Rodney Childers in particular and the guys on our team are doing that. We won one little challenge today and that was to sit on the pole and that gives us a good starting position and a good pit stall, but the whole race is completely dictated by how your car handles in race setup.” Martin said.

Jimmie Johnson qualified second, Ryan Newman third, and Clint Bowyer qualified fourth.

“I got to the gas, I got through (turns) one and two so good that I got to the gas pretty early and three and four and just drove it pushing into it and kind of killed my lap.” Bowyer said.

Matt Kenseth qualified fifth.

“Our speed was okay but we just have kind of been struggling a little bit with it. We don’t have it quite right for balance. I feel like I got everything there was to get but we just have to keep looking to get our stuff improved a little bit here. I feel like this is one of our better tracks but we are just kind of missing something a little bit this weekend.” Kenseth said.

Series points leader Greg Biffle qualified 7th.

“The car was sliding up the track a little bit. It seemed real slick to me and then the 55 went and ran that kind of lap. I guess it is only a tenth. If he entered a little different or the car hooked the bottom and he went to the gas really early that would make a difference. Seventh isn’t bad and I feel good about tomorrow. I think we have a good car.” Biffle said.