From Michaeal Waltrip Racing Inc.

Tuesday, 01 August 2006

INDIANAPOLIS (August 1, 2006) – Winning the Brickyard 400 in 2002 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway was a prominent victory for Bill Elliott. This weekend the 44-time NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series winner returns to the 2.5-mile oval to pilot the No. 00 BURGER KING® car for Michael Waltrip Racing in the Allstate 400. 

“To me, the Brickyard is kind of like the Daytona 500,” Elliott said, who earned his Brickyard win behind the wheel of the No. 9 Evernham Motorsports entry. “The Daytona 500 is the granddaddy of them all. Then in the second half of the season, you have the Brickyard. It’s a prestigious race to win.”

In addition to his victory at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Elliott has five top-five and nine top-10 finishes in 12 starts.

“I’ve just always liked that racetrack for some reason,” Elliott said. “It kind of fits my style. It seems like we’ve always had pretty decent cars every time I’ve been there. When I was running full-time we always focused hard on that particular race.”

Michael Waltrip Racing has been ramping up for three full-time NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series teams in addition to ongoing support of the NASCAR Busch Series operation. Continuing to add key personnel is atop the agenda at Michael Waltrip Racing and crew chief Larry Carter’s team has benefited from the latest additions.

“We’ve added people and we’ve been able to spend more time on preparing this car for Indy,” Carter said. “I think we will show improvement since the last two outings at Chicagoland Speedway and New Hampshire International Speedway. Making the race is going to be a big deal for any team because there’s going to be a lot of cars there. We had an opportunity to test there earlier this month and we are looking forward to going back especially with Bill’s success there.”
 
Live pre-race coverage of the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series Allstate 400 at the Brickyard on Sunday, August 6th begins at 2 p.m. Eastern on NBC and broadcast by IMS.