Bill Elliott's First Race in No. 00 Burger King Car Begins at Chicagoland Speedway

JOLIET, Ill. – This weekend at Chicagoland Speedway, Bill Elliott prepares for the first of five races that he is scheduled to drive the No. 00 Burger King NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series entry for Michael Waltrip Racing as the organization plans to field multiple full-time NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series Toyota Camry entries in 2007.

“This will be our first race in the Burger King car,” said Elliott. “The five tracks that we are going to are the kind I really enjoy racing. To get ready for Chicagoland, we’ve been testing and preparing for this race and we are glad it’s finally here. We tested at the Milwaukee Mile and Kentucky Speedway not long ago. They even tested one of the cars just yesterday with David Reutimann at Nashville Superspeedway.”

This weekend the 44-time NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series winner’s focus is topping his best finish of seventh-place, which occurred at the 1.5-mile D-shaped tri-oval in 2002.

“I’ve always qualified well at Chicagoland Speedway and finished well there too,” Elliott said, who has two top-10 finishes in three starts at the track. “The last time I was there was in 2003. We started third and we finished 11th in the No. 9 car. When tracks age, the racing is better and I like the track more.”

Last month at Michigan International Speedway, Michael Waltrip Racing (MWR) announced a partnership with Burger King Corporation (BKC) and Domino’s Pizza (DPZ) to be co-primary sponsors of its second 2007 NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series team.

“These five races are strictly meant to prepare us for next season,” Waltrip said. “It also keeps us in loop as to what’s going on in the garage right now. There’s a lot of energy built around these races that Burger King is a part of. Just yesterday, I pulled up to the Burger King drive-thru and they handed me a Michael Waltrip Racing No. 00 Burger King Racing Coca-Cola cup with my breakfast. That even got me more keyed up about what’s going on this weekend at Chicagoland Speedway.”

Live Coverage of the USG Sheetrock 400 NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series event at Chicagoland Speedway on July 9th begins at 3 p.m. Eastern on TNT and will be broadcast by MRN Radio.