The No. 55 car will have a different, but familiar, primary sponsor.

Domino's stepping up NASCAR sponsorship

When Michael Waltrip takes the green flag on Sunday at Michigan International Speedway, he'll do so with an old friend of motorsports on his hood and quarterpanels.

Domino's Pizza is finally delivering on its promise to use the Nextel Cup Series as a primary vehicle in the chase for brand awareness and sales. The company, which was involved heavily in the open-wheel segment of the sport in the late 1980s and early 1990s, has been taking its time to make sure that what it hopes to accomplish in NASCAR's motorsports arena is actually attainable through direct sponsorship, and now is the time to put all that due diligence to work.

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And it was a lot of due diligence. In a sport that thrives on speed, Domino's decided to take it slow and learn the ins and outs before getting involved on a large scale.

"The first time we started exploring NASCAR was back in the fall of 2001," said Ken Calwell, Domino's Pizza executive vice-president and chief marketing officer. "The first thing that interested us was a consumer study that we had that told us that there was a lot overlap in the demographics of the people who were Domino's Pizza consumers and those who were interested in NASCAR.

"We needed to learn more. We have done quite a bit with the NFL, Monday Night Football and the College Football series on CBS, and I'm a firm believer that you don't want to do a lot of little sports or events, you want to figure out the couple of sports that fit the best with your target and your strategy."

Calwell and his team began looking over the sport's landscape and came up with a few surprises.

"We were a little surprised by how large it was; we had heard how fast it was growing, but once we learned how fast, we wanted to do more," he said. "The fact that there's that strong overlap between NASCAR fans and the delivery pizza consumer, those three things together definitely helped us decide that we wanted to get into the sport in some way."

OK, but how? That's always been the $64,000 question (add a couple of zeroes to account for inflation!) among companies with marketing agendas to fulfill.

"There are so many different ways to participate in the sport," Calwell said. "And of course, we were looking for the most efficient, effective way to do it to get to our consumers. I think that's a continual journey. I don't think you ever have the final answer on that."

One thing Calwell and Domino's did not do was throw huge stacks of $100 bills at it and hope some of it stuck. The sport's playing field is littered with the debris of companies who have done that, and Calwell was determined not to fall victim.

"We didn't just leap into the sport, because we had seen some people who dived into it, threw a lot of money at it and not seen a payback on it, then jumped out," Calwell said. "Every year since 2001, we have taken a small bite at first, a small step into the sport. Each year, we've built upon that step.

"What we found was, as we learned more, the more we wanted to participate, but we did it very methodically, very step-by-step, doing more of what works and less of what doesn't each year."

That has culminated in the debut of the Domino's Pizza Dodge at Michigan this weekend, and will continue with the unveiling of the Domino's Pizza Toyota Camry at Daytona in 2007.

"Next year will be a big step for us," Calwell said. "By no means do we see this as the final step, we just hope that we'll be able to build upon this one. We haven't been a primary sponsor at the Cup level before, and it's exciting."

Waltrip has run Domino's colors as an associate sponsor all season on his No. 55 Dodge, raced with Domino's paint in the Busch Series three times over the past two seasons, and Domino's will split the season with Burger King next season on the No. 00 Camry (13 races including the Daytona 500, plus half the 10 Chase races).

The slow and steady approach is intentional, and it's done to make sure of the footing before jumping in.

"People like Michael Waltrip, NASCAR and Toyota, all the folks that we're doing things with, they see that methodical approach, they get to know us, build relationships with us and they see that our actions match our words instead of throwing a lot of money and jumping back," Calwell said. "That allows them to have confidence and trust, invest more of their time in us."

In addition to doing things slowly, step by step and making sure that the water's fine before jumping in with both feet, Domino's has taken advantage of the other marketing vehicles available to it from the sport. Domino's Pizza is the Official Pizza of NASCAR, which allows the company to exercise within the network of the other licensed companies inside the sport. One of the major benefits of that status is participation in NASCAR's official rewards program, NASCAR RacePoints.

One of the primary aspects of the NASCAR relationship is the ability to market new products to NASCAR's ever-growing fan base, Calwell said.

Domino's also has a partnership with Michigan International Speedway, the track closest to the corporate headquarters in Detroit, branded "MIS Delivered by Domino's Pizza."

With all the time and effort spent by Calwell and his team to learn NASCAR, you might say their experience thus far has been, "well-rounded."