BROOKLYN, Mich. -- The way David Reutimann looks at it, he's happy to take orders from the car and leave the pizza making to the experts.

On Thursday, Reutimann and team owner Michael Waltrip visited Domino's headquarters in nearby Ann Arbor to participate in a pizza-making contest in front of the employees.

"I guess they needed some comedic relief because they lined Michael and me up and had us trying to make pizzas," Reutimann said. "They let us make a practice one first, but neither one looked all that good. The second one was actually for time.

"They clocked us to see who was fastest. Michael and I enjoyed it. The people who really know what they're doing got a really good laugh out of it. We're definitely the farthest thing from pizzamakers."

Reutimann made his pizza in 92 seconds, beating Waltrip by a second. But there was a hitch in the second half of the competition.

"They have one part where you make it to the point when it's ready to go into the oven," Reutimann said. "And then there's the part where you take it out, put it in a box, slice it and then close the box and put it on the shelf.

"I won the first leg, but the second, I had some trouble getting the box closed up like it's supposed to be and ended up losing a bunch of time there. I told them it was faulty equipment."

The more Reutimann thought about it, the more he wondered if his boss might have had a hand in things.

"I still think Michael sabotaged it because he went first and I noticed when I came to the stations, there were objects blocking my access to stuff," Reutimann said. "He claims he didn't have anything to do with it, but I think there was some conspiracy there.

"It's good to let the boss win every now and then."

In all seriousness, Reutimann is impressed by the people who make pizzas for Domino's. He's gone through "pizza school," so he knows the steps involved. But that doesn't mean it's easy.

"The people who do it are very good and very fast," Reutimann said. "It's amazing. My stuff comes out and I don't have my dough perfect, with big bubbles, and the thing's all lop-sided when it comes out of the oven.

"And the stuff I get from Domino's is always perfect. Those people make them perfectly and they look like the picture. That, in itself, is pretty amazing. I'm pretty sure, even if I could take as much time I wanted, I'm pretty sure I couldn't get it done like they do."

Reutimann gets a real kick out of the commercials he's done for Domino's, especially when he turns on the TV and sees himself.

"We did have a lot of fun doing those," he said. "They were pretty neat. The whole pizza concept is supposed to be fun. It's not supposed to be serious. It's pizza.

"I'm definitely the farthest thing from an actor. They don't get too tired doing take after take when I screw stuff up."