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Dodge Program on Track with Dealers and Fans
AUBURN HILLS, Mich. (June 4, 2001) - Dodge Motorsports spent the 500 days
prior to the 2001 Daytona 500 counting down the days in preparation for its
return to NASCAR Winston Cup racing. Now, some 100 days into the 2001
season, Dodge is seeing its heralded return deliver new fans for the Dodge
teams, heightened awareness for the brand and increased traffic in Dodge
dealer showrooms.
"Our NASCAR Winston Cup program is a winner," said Jim Julow, vice
president, Dodge Global Brand Center. "Our goal when we launched this
program was to ignite the Dodge brand with an enormous marketing campaign to
leverage a competitive on-track presence. Today, there are very few race
fans who don't know that Dodge has returned to Winston Cup or that Dodge is
the performance brand for DaimlerChrysler. Our dealers see the excitement
in their dealerships, we see it among our employees and you see it on the
fans who wear the Dodge colors each week at the race track."
Dodge dealer Carl Galeana, owner of Van Dyke Dodge in Warren, Mich., agreed,
giving the program high marks for building the Dodge brand. "We didn't
enter this program solely to win on Sunday and sell on Monday," said Galena.
"We see this as a long-term investment in charging up the Dodge brand,
attracting new fans and making the Dodge name synonymous with performance.
We are making incremental gains each week on the race track, but we are
making phenomenal gains each week in visibility."
Julow pointed to five areas that demonstrate the success of the program:
On-track performance
Marketing programs
Dealer support
Fan response
Continued engineering improvements through the one-team
approach
On-Track Performance Shows Durability and Power
Dodge created a unique one-team approach to building and running race cars
and teams. This one-team approach brought together racing veterans such as
Ray Evernham, Bill Davis and Richard Petty with one-car team owners like
Mark Melling and Winston Cup newcomers such as Chip Ganassi. Although Dodge
has yet to visit victory lane, the rookie program has proven that its
engines have the durability to finish races and its cars have the capability
of running up front.
"We are extremely proud of the performance and depth of our teams," said Bob
Wildberger, manager, NASCAR Operations for Dodge. "In the 100 or so days
since we came to Daytona, our teams have shown that this program has a solid
foundation and a lot of potential to win. Every one of our five team owners
has had a Dodge that led laps this season."
To date, Dodge has six top-five finishes, 15 top-10 finishes and two
poles in 13 starts. Top Dodge finishes include one second (John Andretti at
Bristol), one third (Sterling Marlin at Las Vegas), and four fifth-place
finishes (Sterling Marlin at Darlington and Martinsville, Bill Elliott at
Daytona and Ward Burton at Bristol).
Dodge has three drivers in the top 20 in points: Sterling Marlin is
5th, Ward Burton is 17th and Bill Elliott is 19th.
Dodge has led 439 laps this season: Sterling Marlin led 249, Ward
Burton led 90 laps, Dave Blaney led 70 laps, John Andretti led 51 laps, Bill
Elliott led 14 laps, Stacy Compton led eight laps, and Buckshot Jones and
Jason Leffler each led one lap. All five teams and seven of the 10 drivers
have led laps this season.
Dodge has been strongest on the superspeedways this season. It has
one-two-three starts at both Daytona and Talladega. At Daytona, it led the
field with Bill Elliott, Stacy Compton and Sterling Marlin. Marlin won one
of two Gatorade 125s. All 10 Dodges qualified for the field, with four in
the top 10. Dodge was a serious contender all day with three Dodges
finishing in the top 10 -- Bill Elliott at 5th, Sterling Marlin at 7th, and
Stacy Compton at 10th. Sterling Marlin led the most laps for any single
driver with 53 laps lead. At Talladega, Stacy Compton took the pole,
followed by Sterling Marlin and Bill Elliott.
Dodge's Winston Cup program has not come at the expense of its
NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series involvement. Dodge has seven poles and
record-tying eight consecutive wins in the first eight races. Dodge is
leveraging its NCTS success with print ads such as the "Dodge is kicking
everyone's tailgate" and "The winner's circle looks like a Ram showroom".
The Dodge Diversity program is also being leveraged with Dodge ads
spotlighting NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series driver Willy T. Ribbs.
"All in all, what we've accomplished is pretty amazing," said Ray Evernham,
team owner and leader of the Dodge development effort. "We can't focus on
what we haven't done - win. We need to focus on what we have done - develop
a new automobile, get an engine program off the ground and be competitive in
just 500 days. Dodge has been competitive out there and we've had cars that
could win races. The No. 93, No. 9, No. 22 and No. 40 were all fast enough
to win. We've just not put it all together on the race track yet. But that
says an awful lot about the program and the cars. Sooner or later we're
going to put it together. The dealers, the UAW, the DaimlerChrysler
employees, the teams are all committed to the program and it shows."
Marketing Programs Build the Dodge Brand with Consumers and Fans
Dodge kicked off its return to Winston Cup racing with one of the largest
marketing campaigns in the series' history. Print and broadcast marketing
campaigns have delivered the Dodge message to millions of fans and consumers
across the country.
Dodge's print campaign created mass exposure from the start, with an
exclusive Winston Cup Scene poly-bagged with Daytona 500 program, TV Guide
rack hangers that had more than 10.1 million impressions in five markets,
more than 7.4 million "Different Path" eight-page inserts into top magazines
and 25,000 entries in Winston Cup Scene match-the-car-to-the-driver contest
Dodge's Countdown was supported by an extensive broadcast campaign,
including two Super Bowl pre-game spots, sponsorship of the History Channel
special "History of Stock Car Racing" and the Dodge "Countdown" special
debuting immediately prior to Daytona 500 on Fox
Broadcast NASCAR Winston Cup coverage has provided more than $33
million in brand exposure through the first four races, while success in the
NASCAR Craftsman Truck series has increased Dodge broadcast exposure 71
percent, or $5.4 million in incremental exposure
Dodge is expanding this marketing program through promotions with its
partners and team sponsors such as General Mills, Mountain Dew and Amoco,
among others.
General Mills created an innovative promotion to distribute team
diecasts through retail outlets nationwide that delivered total packaging
exposure of 42.41 million while supporting circulars and inserts had
circulation of 306 million. General Mills distributed 14.2 million diecast
packages, while General Mills trading cards were distributed on 4.99 million
packages. A mail-in gold diecast promotion was distributed in 20.4 million
boxes, and 2.82 million special Dodge Wheaties boxes featuring Bill Elliott
were distributed.
Mountain Dew, through its sponsorship of the No. 19 Dew Crew, is
distributing the Dodge Winston Cup one-team message on 25 million 12-pack
cases of Mountain Dew and is conducting an instant-win game on 3.5 million
specially marked 12-packs for Grand Prize limited-edition Mountain Dew Dodge
Intrepids.
Amoco is running a diecast promotion at more than 4,300 Amoco retail
sites around the country. It expects to distribute more than 1.2 million
diecast cars displaying the Amoco No. 93 paint scheme on 1/64-scale models
including the NASCAR Dodge Intrepid, Dodge Ram, Dodge Viper and vintage
Dodge Charger.
Fans Show Their Support of Dodge
Fans have embraced Dodge's return to Winston Cup racing. Merchandise sales
for Dodge and its 10 teams are outpacing other manufacturers as fans show
their Dodge pride. Fans also are flooding the Dodge Web site and online
partners for more information on the program. All os this is translating to
Dodge product interest, as nearly 60 percent of Web site visitors expressed
interest in purchasing a Dodge Intrepid R/T.
"The fans have been tremendous," said Evernham. "They're happy Dodge is
back. That makes it easier to work hard to win. They're excited to see
Dodge out there and hope to see Dodge in victory lane. Dodge dealers tell
me that fans are coming to their dealerships to see the Intrepid and share
their excitement for the program. That's good on two fronts - fans are
supporting the program and they're are taking that support to the Dodge
dealer showrooms."
Fan demand for Dodge merchandise put Dodge among the highest-selling
trackside trailers - 30 percent higher than competing manufacturers. More
than 1,900 Dodge dealers are part of the licensed motorsports product retail
chain.
The Dodge Garage (www.4adodge.com ) has
consistently been the top-visited area of the Dodge consumer website. More
than 53,000 fans have registered for insider access.
Dodge partnered with Microsoft Network and TV Guide to generate
additional online impressions. The Dodge Speedway racing game on MSN is the
third most popular game on the zone.com, recording 1.1 million hits on its
opening page while 436,664 have played the game. TV Guide Online generated
4.07 million impressions, well over of the 3.47 expected.
Dealers Bring the Program to Life in the Showroom
Dodge Dealers are helping to bring the excitement of Dodge's return to
Winston Cup racing to their local level through grassroots programs that
deliver an emotional linkage to the Dodge brand, dealers and vehicles.
Dealers are involved at a local level with dedicated motorsports displays,
motorsport-themed dealership events and show car appearances
2,000 Dodge dealers nationwide participated in point-of-purchase
promotions to support the "Countdown to Daytona Sales Event" -- the highest
rate ever
Dodge Dealer track entitlements are growing and include:
Title sponsor of Florida Dodge Dealers 250 NCTS race at Daytona
International Speedway
Title sponsor of Florida Dodge Dealers 400 NCTS race at
Homestead/Miami
Official Car, Truck and Pace Car of the Pennzoil 400 WCS race at
Homestead/Miami
Title sponsor of Ram Tough 250 NCTS race at Gateway
Co-sponsor, Official Car, Truck and Pace Car of Dodge/Savemart 350
WCS race at Sears Point
Official Car, Truck and Pace Car of WCS race at Chicagoland Speedway
Official Car and Truck of Pikes Peak International Raceway
Official Car, Truck and Pace vehicle of Pocono International Raceway
Dodge City is providing dealers with a turn-key fan exhibition that
draws enormous crowds. More than 5,000 fans an hour toured Dodge City at
its Daytona debut
Dodge City is booked at five races and two sporting events between
February and July
One-Team Approach Continues Quest for Engineering Improvements
Dodge's extensive engineering program that built the Intrepid R/T
has been hard at work this season refining the race car engine, chassis and
aero performance. The Dodge engineers continue to work with the teams
under the innovative one-team approach, sharing data and developments to
improve the 10 teams' performance.
"The most significant thing we've done in the last 100 days is
transition from developing a car and engine from scratch to managing an
ongoing program," said Tim Culbertson, manager, Dodge NASCAR Winston Cup
Program Engineering. "It's been a real dip in cold water to actually go
racing. It's a big change to go from building something and finding huge
gains each day to taking an existing car and looking for improvements. Now,
we're searching for four counts less drag or three or five more horsepower."
On the engine program, Dodge has proven its durability on tough
tracks like Rockingham, California or Lowe's Motor Speedway. The engineers
are now working on:
Continued valve train development
Reducing engine weight through lighter, stronger parts
Performance developments such as enhanced intake manifold designs
based on computer simulation tools
From an aero standpoint, Dodge engineers point to speedway
performance at Daytona and the successful response to the NASCAR rules
change that gave them the front row at Talladega. Engineering is focused
on:
Testing for more downforce. Dodge is providing the teams
opportunities to work on aero jointly or use the wind tunnel at Lockheed
Managing air flow for different types of tracks
On the chassis, Dodge is running complex analytical and empirical
studies of the frame stiffness and performance. It has developed computer
simulation tools and is working with the teams to utilize the tools
effectively. Dodge and the teams can study the total car performance on
specific tracks and analyze how different changes improve performance.
Dodge continues to study safety. It is working on a number of
issues, including safety, with NASCAR. It shared a number of safety
concepts with the 10 Dodge teams and commissioned Dr. John Melvin to meet
with the teams. Independently, Dodge is applying advanced computerized
impact tools and sophisticated analyses to better understand how safety
improvements might be made. Some of the analyses are so complex that it
takes two days for a water-cooled computer large enough to fill a room to
complete a study.
In the next 100 days, Dodge hopes to bring home its first NASCAR Winston Cup
victory and improve the performance of its 10 teams. However, win or lose,
Dodge has delivered increased interest in the brand, excitement for fans and
showroom traffic for dealers. It will continue the strong national
marketing initiatives that have made the program a success with dealers and
fans. And, it will begin planning for its sophomore season in Winston Cup
racing, which is only some 300 days away.
News and Results |
Point Standings |
2001 Schedule |
2001 Teams
2000 Schedule and Results
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