Sprint drivers ready for Saturday's race

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla., July 2 (UPI) -- Veteran NASCAR drivers are looking forward to Saturday's Coke Zero 400 auto race at the Daytona International Speedway in Florida.

It marks the midpoint of the Sprint Cup season and will be their second crack at the 2.5-mile superspeedway this season.

"(Team owner) Doug (Yates) has put in a tremendous amount of time at the engine shop getting our engines where they need to be to unload a fast race car at Daytona," Bobby Labonte said.

"Handling is big in the 500, but this race is hot and the track has been hot for months," Kasey Kahne said.

"Some people will be able to go faster and be on the throttle more than others."

"It's relatively cool in February, so in July, you just go more towards grip and handling more than you do in the first race," Kevin Harvick warned.

The first race at Daytona was the "500," in February, won by Matt Kenseth ahead of Harvick and A.J. Allmendinger.