Dale Jr., Ives get jump on '15 at Homestead test

Tuesday on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio's "The Morning Drive," Letarte said that the two-day test would give Ives and his driver a chance to work together without the pressure of a race weekend.

"We're going to run a little bit under the 2015 rules," Letarte said. "(Greg) and Dale are going to be working some together today; I'm talking on the radio instead of working on the race car because I want Greg and Dale to really spend some time together and kind of get a leg up.

"Then this afternoon about 5 o'clock when the sun starts to go down we'll jump into '14 rules; Dale and I will work hard and we'll probably do the same thing again tomorrow -- when the track is close to (what) we're going to have for the 3:30-4 o'clock start of the upcoming race, we're going to be in our '14 configuration.

"When it's not that close, here in the middle of the day, we'll let Greg and Dale work through some plans for next year."

The Sprint Cup Series moves on to Texas Motor Speedway this weekend for the AAA Texas 500 (Sunday, 3 p.m. ET, ESPN), before stops at Phoenix and Homestead close out the season.

"If you're going to go and spend the time and money and effort to go test, to get on the airplane, to go down there … do it right or don't do it at all," he said. "Winning is better than losing, that's what we figured out and there's three more to go and our goal is to win all three."

The Martinsville victory was the fourth win of the season for Earnhardt Jr., who also won the Daytona 500 and swept both races at Pocono Raceway. It was his fifth since being paired with Letarte in 2011.

Hendrick teammates Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson and Kasey Kahne are also participating in the two-day test, as is Joey Logano and Brad Keselowski (Team Penske), Greg Biffle, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., and Carl Edwards (Roush Fenway Racing), Denny Hamlin, Kyle Busch and Matt Kenseth (Joe Gibbs Racing), and Tony Stewart, Kevin Harvick and Kurt Busch (Stewart-Haas Racing).

The group includes seven of the eight drivers still battling for this year's Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup title – Richard Childress Racing's Ryan Newman is the only Chase driver not in attendance. According to a spokesman for RCR, the organization has already used all four of its tests allowed at NASCAR tracks.

"It basically looks like a Chase heat race," Letarte said. "Egos will come out today. We say we're testing, but you don't want to go home the slowest."

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