CONCORD, N.C. -- Greg Biffle, who'll start fourth in Sunday night's Coca-Cola 600, confirmed his high hopes for a better outcome than his runner-up position to Kasey Kahne in last weekend's Sprint All-Star race on the fast, 1.5-mile oval of Lowe's Motor Speedway.

But Biffle again highlighted the fact that there's a difference of opinion on how the racing will be on Sunday evening.

Coca-Cola 600

Lineup

Pos.	Driver	Speed	Time
1.	Ky. Busch	185.433	29.121
2.	K. Kahne	185.300	29.142
3.	B. Vickers	185.249	29.150
4.	G. Biffle	184.969	29.194
5.	D. Ragan	184.470	29.273
6.	Dale Jr.	184.439	29.278
7.	M. Martin	184.181	29.319
8.	Ku. Busch	184.106	29.331
9.	E. Sadler	183.974	29.352
10.	J. Johnson	183.924	29.360

• Lineup | Videos | Photos

Saturday's two sessions did prove that a select group of competitors seemed to have a handle on the fluctuating conditions at Lowe's.

Toyota-mounted Brian Vickers and Tony Stewart weighed in strong, along with Biffle and Kyle Busch as Vickers' No. 83 Red Bull Racing Camry was fastest in the critical final practice (29.878 seconds, 180.735 mph) and sixth in the first session.

Stewart's No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Camry was second in Happy Hour and fourth in the first practice, which was held in sunny, hot conditions; and his JGR teammate and 600 pole-sitter Kyle Busch was sixth in Happy Hour and third in the opener in his No. 18 Toyota.

Biffle led the day's opening practice (29.953 seconds, 180.282 mph) in his No. 16 Roush Fenway Racing Ford and followed up by running fifth in Happy Hour. He could barely contain his excitement about it, despite having a best finish of sixth in five Coca-Cola 600s.

"I've got a really good car and I can't wait," Biffle said for Sunday's 5:30 p.m. ET start. "We're real happy with the car. We're pretty good on a long run."

Defending Coca-Cola 600 champion Casey Mears also found a direction in Saturday's final two practices.

Mears, who scored the only victory of his 191-race career in this event last year, was only 25th in the opening practice in his No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, but he'd improved to eighth by Happy Hour.

"We actually took that first practice to kinda try some crazy stuff -- some things we hadn't tried before," Mears said, admitting that concerns about the new car's characteristics had he and crew chief Alan Gustafson thinking outside the box. "We've just been trying to find something that is going to help it drive better.

"Lately we've been having a hard time finding that sweet spot, so we wanted to try something different. It was good to try [some different things] and that will give us something to think about, [because] we're battling both ends, really.

"It depends. If I get the thing real loose we can't get it to turn in the center and just trying to get that whole combination's been hard to get right."

Biffle said he felt that a full field of racecars and 600 miles of competition would be a better show than last weekend's 24-car All-Star Race, which was run caution-free and, according to some, with a general lack of racing.

"I don't think it will be similar to the All-Star Race purely from the fact that there are gonna be 43 cars on the track, so that's gonna make a huge difference," Biffle said. "In the All-Star Race there are only [24] cars and we only had [four] 25-lap sprints -- there weren't any long runs.

“

What's going to happen is the leader will get in traffic during a 600-mile race, so you're gonna see a lot better racing.

”

GREG BIFFLE

"What's going to happen is the leader will get in traffic during a 600-mile race, so you're gonna see a lot better racing. I think a lot of cars were single-file last week because the cars are so equal and there were only 22 cars [that finished] -- there wasn't anything to mix it up."

Biffle's crew chief, Greg Erwin, said the cars' equality is what will make the racing difficult, if not non-existent -- along with the effects of track position that he and Biffle discovered in the All-Star Race when Kahne took only fuel for the final 25-lap segment and couldn't be beaten.

"I have a lot of concern about the race-ability," Erwin said. "It was obvious that track position is key [and] it's going to continue to be that way every week at these fast racetracks until we as a group get a handle on what it's going to take.

"It's just too important to be up front, and when you're up front you can drive away. In Kasey's case [in the All-Star Race], maybe he couldn't drive away from us, but we couldn't get around him -- even if we had a car that was two- or three-tenths [of a second] better a lap. When we got to his bumper, it was over."

Erwin said that even two race practices weren't really enough to work on what was needed.

"We don't ever get an opportunity to run nose-to-tail as close as we do in the race, even in practice, so every week we're wondering [what to do]," Erwin said. "I think what you're seeing here is all the cars are so close and the tire doesn't fall off as much as it did at Atlanta or Texas -- so the gap between the good cars and the bad cars after 20 laps on tires aren't as big as they were -- so the passing opportunities get smaller.

"It's the same as it's always been, but the closeness of the cars, aerodynamically, just magnifies it. We've seen cars go back and come back to the [top-five], but when you have 10 cars that could run within a tenth of each other in clean air, and you put them 1-10, then the driver's got to make it happen, or the guys have to make mistakes that allow them to be passed."

Kahne, who fluctuated from 12th in Saturday's first practice to 13th in Happy Hour in his No. 9 Gillett Evernham Motorsports Dodge, said he definitely had a chance to win two weekend's worth of Cup events at Lowe's. Kahne swept both Cup points races at Lowe's in 2006.

"We were pretty decent in the last session [and] I think that we got close to what we were looking for," Kahne said. "It would be great both for me personally and the entire Gillett Evernham Motorsports team [to win both races].

"I think winning the All-Star Race has given us a lot of momentum heading into [Sunday] night. I think that we have a legitimate shot at winning both races based upon how our car has performed here this weekend.

"You don't win the Coca-Cola 600 in the first 100 laps, but you can certainly lose it by doing something stupid early. You have to be patient for the majority of the 600 miles and get racy later in the race. Our car was really good at night in the All-Star Race and I would expect it to be the same [Sunday] night."

Erwin said that what he and other crew chiefs saw along pit road in the All-Star Race would definitely affect his strategic decisions Sunday night.

"Absolutely, as clear as a bell," Erwin said. "It was a great call on the 9 [Kahne's crew chief, Kenny Francis] -- they out-foxed us and I don't know if even they expected it to turn out as well as it did. But what they did opened my eyes."