One team made its début at the race. Red Bull Racing Team elected to start operations early as part of a warm-up exercise to running a full-time schedule in the 2007 season with the 1988 NASCAR Winston Cup Series champion Bill Elliott driving the 83 car. Elliott would attempt to qualify the car at three races towards the end of the year. He said his decision to join Red Bull was because of the organization's willingness to become competitive. Elliott said he was required to qualify the car for the race and then move up the field and provide input that would allow the team to be prepared for the 2007 Daytona 500.