For those of you NASCAR fans that like stats and love to hate commercials, here is the breakdown from the race on Sunday afternoon.

Here is my breakdown, thoroughly unprofessional, and, hopefully, easy-to-understand.

I started recording the times as the Invocation for the race was given at 12:43 PM, and stopped at the waving of the checkered flag at 4:44 PM (all times are EST). I did not keep records for the pre- and post-race coverage.

Please note that in addition to all of the following, there is always a company logo visible in the upper right hand corner of the screen by the race ticker scrolling across the screen.

Subway 500 Race and Commercial Breakdown of 10-22-06

Items of interest this week: There was one restart missed completely; and one in which when they returned from commercial the green flag was waving (too close to call it).

No one was going to miss knowing that Subway sponsored this race as there were twelve commercials telling us so, as well as two quick promos for it during the race. Jared Fogle, Subway spokesperson, gave the driver command in a spirited fashion. Additionally, the race went green at 1:00 PM, and at 1:05 PM, upon the return from a commercial, Jared had a promo welcoming fans to the ‘Subway 500’.

Also, for the first time since I have been keeping track of the commercials, the race went to a caution (due to Kurt Busch getting into the wall) without NBC breaking to a commercial. We saw the entire caution, pits and all. After it went to green, there was another yellow almost immediately (Casey Mears going around), which we saw as well. A third caution happened quickly (involving Clint Bowyer), at which point the network did finally go to a commercial.

Total number of commercials: 143

Total number of companies or entities advertised: 72

Total number of brief promos of products/services during the race broadcast: 30

Total number of companies or entities advertised in brief promos or crawlers: 20 (companies: Ford, Bank of America, Budweiser, Cingular, Subway, ‘Heroes’, www.nbcsports.com, Principal Financial, Team Chevy, Allstate, UPS, ‘Deal or No Deal’, ‘Studio 60’, Nextel, Enterprise Rent-a-car, DirecTV, NFL- ‘Sunday Night Football’, Ford ‘Race to the Dream’, NASCAR Busch Series, Nextel Cup race in Atlanta)

Total amount of time these brief promos take during broadcast: app.
2 min. 55 sec.

Also, there is the following race statistics during the broadcast, sponsored by companies:

Budweiser ‘Bud Pole Award’
Allstate ‘Good Hands Driver Award’
Team Chevy ‘Driver to Watch’
Cingular ‘Race Talk Question of the Day’
Auto Zone ‘In the Zone Drivers’
AFLAC ‘Trivia Question’

Restarts missed due to being away at commercial: 1

Start time to record race/commercial periods: 12:43 P.M.
End time to record race/commercial periods: 4:44 P.M.

Total minutes: 241

Minutes of race broadcast: 173
Minutes of commercials: 68

Breakdown of what the commercials were for, by category:

NBC Previews/Promos

‘Las Vegas’ – 4
‘Heroes’ – 4
NFL Sunday Night Football – 2
‘Friday Night Lights’ – 2
Jeremy McGrath Motocross Invitational – 2
NFL ‘Football Night in America’ – 1
nbcsports.com – 1
‘Deal or No Deal’ – 1
www.themoreyouknow.com (Dale Earnhardt Jr.) – 1
Total: 18

Local News/Sports/Points-of-Interest in Penna.

Local news – 2
Local sports – 1
Total: 3

Restaurants/Food

Subway – 12
Little Debbie’s – 2
Banquet pot pies (Tony Stewart) – 2
Dominos – 1
Pizza Hut – 1
Ruby Tuesdays – 1
Total: 19

Beer

Miller Lite – 3
Budweiser – 1
Budweiser (Dale Earnhardt Jr.) – 1
Busch Lite – 1
Total: 6

Car/Truck/Bike

Toyota (DW and MW) – 4
Ford – 4
NAPA – 2
Enterprise Rent-a-Car – 2
Auto Zone – 2
Dodge – 2
Duralast Auto Parts at Auto Zone – 2
Chevrolet – 2
Harley Davidson – 1
Prestone – 1
Suzuki ATV – 1
Total: 23

Credit Cards/Financial

Bank of America – 3
Principal Financial – 2
AmeriQuest (Greg Biffle, Carl Edwards) – 2
Total: 7

Insurance

Allstate (Kasey Kahne) – 2
AFLAC – 2
Safe Auto – 2
State Farm (Reed Sorenson) – 1
State Farm (Jeff Burton) – 1
Total: 8

Health/Medical

Luna Eye Centers – 2
Total: 2

Wireless Phone

Nextel (Kevin Harvick) – 3
Nextel – 2
Cingular – 2
Cingular (Jeff Burton) – 1
Total: 8

Home Improvement

Home Depot – 3
Lowes – 2
Value City Furniture – 1
Total: 6

Technology

DLP (Tony Raines) – 3
Sony SXRD HDTV (NASCAR Legends) – 3
DirecTV – 3
Total: 9

Products/Services for the Home and Personal Use

Wrangler Jeans (Dale Jr) – 2
Tylenol GoTabs – 2
Wrangler Jeans – 1
www.usepropane.com – 1
Garnier Fructis – 1
Gillette Fusion – 1
ADT Security – 1
Energizer – 1
Total: 10

Shipping

Fed Ex (Denny Hamlin) – 4
UPS (Dale Jarrett) – 2
Total: 6

Racing Related

nascar.com Trackpass – 5
‘Race to the Chase’ – 4
Ford ‘Race to the Dream’ – 1
Ford ‘Race to the Dream’ (Carl Edwards) – 1
nascar.com performance – 1
NASCAR Foundation – 1
NASCAR Busch Series – 1
Daytona 500 tickets – 1
Phoenix International Raceway – 1
Atlanta Motor Speedway – 1
Memphis Motor Speedway – 1
Total: 18

Breakdown of specific times, broken into two categories (race broadcast times, and commercial broadcast times):

Race brdcast times:Total min:Comm. brdcast times: Total min:

12:43 PM – 12:45 PM -2//12:45 PM – 12:48 PM – 3

12:48 PM – 1:02 PM – 14//1:02 PM – 1:05 PM – 3

1:05 PM – 1:11 PM – 6 //1:11 PM – 1:13 PM – 2

1:13 PM – 1:19 PM – 6 //1:19 PM – 1:22 PM – 3

1:22 PM – 1:27 PM – 5 //1:27 PM – 1:30 PM – 3

1:30 PM – 1:36 PM – 6 //1:36 PM – 1:39 PM – 3

1:39 PM – 1:43 PM – 4 //1:43 PM – 1:46 PM – 3

1:46 PM – 1:53 PM – 7 //1:53 PM – 1:56 PM – 3

1:56 PM – 2:02 PM – 6 //2:02 PM – 2:05 PM – 3

2:05 PM – 2:10 PM – 5 //2:10 PM – 2:15 PM – 5

2:15 PM – 2:19 PM – 4 //2:19 PM – 2:20 PM – 1

2:20 PM – 2:22 PM – 2 //2:22 PM – 2:23 PM – 1

2:23 PM – 2:29 PM – 6 //2:29 PM – 2:32 PM – 3

2:32 PM – 2:36 PM – 4 //2:36 PM – 2:38 PM – 2

2:38 PM – 2:44 PM – 6 //2:44 PM – 2:45 PM – 1

2:45 PM – 2:50 PM – 5 //2:50 PM – 2:52 PM – 2

2:52 PM –2:59 PM – 7 //2:59 PM – 3:01 PM – 2

3:01 PM – 3:07 PM – 6 //3:07 PM – 3:09 PM – 2

3:09 PM – 3:14 PM – 5 //3:14 PM – 3:17 PM – 3

3:17 PM – 3:20 PM – 3 //3:20 PM – 3:22 PM – 2

3:22 PM – 3:27 PM – 5 //3:27 PM – 3:30 PM – 3

3:30 PM – 3:33 PM – 3 //3:33 PM – 3:36 PM – 3

3:36 PM –3:40 PM – 4 //3:40 PM – 3:43 PM – 3

3:43 PM – 3:49 PM – 6 //3:49 PM – 3:51 PM – 2

3:51 PM – 3:55 PM – 4 //3:55 PM – 3:58 PM – 3

3:58 PM – 4:10 PM – 12 //4:10 PM – 4:12 PM – 2

4:12 PM – 4:27 PM – 15 //4:27 PM – 4:29 PM – 2

4:29 PM – 4:44 PM – 15 //4:44 PM – checkered flag flies

Total race brdcst time: 173 min Total comm. brdcst time: 68 min