TONI BRAXTON TO SING NATIONAL ANTHEM FOR USG SHEETROCK 400

TONI BRAXTON TO SING NATIONAL ANTHEM FOR USG SHEETROCK 400 Grammy Award-winning recording artist Toni Braxton will sing the National Anthem for the USG Sheetrock 400, NASCAR Nextel Cup Series race, at Chicagoland Speedway on Sun., July 10.

As part of the pre-race festivities, Braxton will sing the anthem a cappella style, fulfilling a long standing tradition of NASCAR and racing events throughout the country. Her performance will be punctuated with an overhead flyby of F-16s out of the 170th Fighter Squadron from the Illinois Air National Guard.

“I'm so thrilled to be taking part in one of America's greatest national pastimes,” Braxton said. “NASCAR's roots run deep in the hearts and souls of its fans, and I am honored to count myself one of the millions.”

Braxton is scheduled to perform the National Anthem at approximately 2:20 p.m. from the start-finish line of the 1.5-mile Chicagoland Speedway. The USG Sheetrock 400 is slated to start at approximately 2:30 p.m. CT.

“Toni Braxton is a tremendously talented singer who will lend a very powerful voice to our national anthem,” said Matthew Alexander, vice president and general manager of Chicagoland Speedway. “We are very excited and honored that she will be a part of our pre-race ceremonies for the USG Sheetrock 400. She’ll make this event even more memorable for our fans.”

With one of the most distinctive and recognizable voices in contemporary music, Toni Braxton returns to the international marketplace with the 2005 release of “Libra,” her sizzling debut set for Blackground/Universal Records. The eagerly-anticipated follow-up to her top-selling CD, “More Than A Woman,” the new album finds the multiple Grammy award-winning artist delivering material that reflects her creative maturity. With a musical nod to the kind of finely-crafted songs that first propelled her to global fame over a decade ago, “Libra” strikes the perfect balance between today's radio-friendly grooves (exemplified by the album's hot first single, "Please") and 'old school' flavored slow jams (such as "Stupid" and "Midnite"), giving the hmulti-talented entertainer a new opportunity to bring her instantly-recognizable vocal style back to the forefront.

For more information about the July 8-10 USG NASCAR weekend at Chicagoland Speedway, visit ChicagolandSpeedway.com.

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