Time to see what they've got

— -- DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- NASCAR scrapped preseason testing at Daytona International Speedway this year in hopes of saving the teams money.

The teams welcomed the move. Especially with the change from single-car qualifying to group qualifying for the Daytona 500 pole, teams would have wasted time at Daytona in January if they had gone out on single-car runs. Few would have drafted for any extended length of time with most preferring to keep their cars in one piece.

So now it's time for the real test session, also known as the Sprint Unlimited.

The 75-lap exhibition race Saturday night will feature 25 drivers in an expanded field that doesn't just include the 2014 pole winners but also past Daytona 500 pole winners (you're welcome, Danica Patrick fans), past winners of the preseason exhibition race and Chase for the Sprint Cup participants from the previous year.

Four eligible drivers will miss the race. Brian Vickers will sit out because of his preseason heart surgery, a procedure that will also keep him out of the Daytona 500 and the next week at Atlanta. Three drivers won't compete because their teams didn't feel it was worth the cost -- Richard Childress Racing's Brian Scott (a full-time Nationwide driver who won the Cup pole at Talladega), JTG Daugherty Racing's AJ Allmendinger (2014 Chase driver) and Front Row Motorsports' David Gilliland (July Daytona pole winner).

They will be replaced by those highest in driver points not already in the field: Clint Bowyer, Paul Menard, Casey Mears and Ricky Stenhouse Jr., drivers who will take the 75 laps of experience in an event that will be broken into two segments, with a first segment of 25 laps and a final segment of 50 laps.

They have the sponsorship or feel the track time, drafting in race conditions, is worth it. This isn't a race about the money. Teams very well could lose money as the purse is approximately $43,000 less than last year with seven more participants. The winner will earn close to $200,000, but that will be the only team to leave with a six-figure payday; teams with drivers fourth through ninth will make between $30,000 and $40,000, and everyone outside the top 10 will take in less than $30,000.

Those who compete, though, will look at it as valuable experience eight days before the biggest event of the season. The drivers will learn whether any changes they've made to the cars will help them draft. With the same package as a year ago, expect those good at restrictor-plate tracks in 2014 to continue to show that strength.

The biggest deal of the Sprint Unlimited? It will be the first time several of the drivers work with new crew chiefs.

Of the 25 drivers in the Unlimited, there will be eight new driver-crew chief pairings: Jamie McMurray and Matt McCall (former Ryan Newman engineer), Kasey Kahne and Keith Rodden (former McMurray crew chief), Denny Hamlin and Dave Rogers (former Kyle Busch crew chief), Stenhouse and Nick Sandler (former Carl Edwards engineer), Kyle Busch and Adam Stevens (his former Nationwide crew chief), Carl Edwards and Darian Grubb (former Hamlin crew chief), Martin Truex Jr. and Cole Pearn (former team engineer), and Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Greg Ives ( Chase Elliott's Nationwide championship crew chief at JR Motorsports).

Three other drivers have crew chiefs they worked with for five or fewer races at the end of last year: Kurt Busch with Tony Gibson (former Patrick crew chief), Patrick with Daniel Knost (former Kurt Busch crew chief) and Menard with Justin Alexander (his former team engineer).

The Sprint Unlimited provides these new pairings the opportunity to work on their communication in a race setting.

"The terminology he uses and I use may be a little different," Earnhardt said about working with Ives. "I'm one of the drivers that sort of grades on a 10 scale as far as the balance of the car. He's got to learn my scale. I've got to learn his scale. We've got to sort of come together on that.

"For the first couple of races, he'll be making changes that might not match my scale. So that's something we'll learn over time."

These drivers get two races -- the Sprint Unlimited and the Daytona 500 qualifying races -- to get in sync with their crew chiefs before the Daytona 500. Truthfully, though, the restrictor-plate package does not offer many options as far as adjustments on the car during a race.

They can make some slight tweaks, but really what they've got is what they have to live with. They might be able to work on the Daytona 500 car in practice the next week to make it a little bit better based off what they learn in 75 laps Saturday night.

But just as drivers often like track time no matter the scenario, they relish the opportunity to work with their new leaders.

"It's going to add just a level of excitement," said Hamlin, who knows Rogers well already as they worked together in what is now the Xfinity Series. "Any time you get new personnel, there's new ideas.

"He worked with Kyle and had success, and I'll bring a lot of what me and Darian had success with. Hopefully it pairs up to be something that's very, very good."

And what if your favorite driver doesn't win the Sprint Unlimited? Don't fret about it. Only five times in 32 years -- and not once in the past 14 -- has the winner of the race gone on to win the Daytona 500.

And only once in the past 17 years --  Tony Stewart in 2002 -- has the winner of the race gone on to win the championship.