Oct 29, 05:47 PM
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 2:50 PM, and stopped at the waving of the checkered flag at 6:38 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 by the race ticker scrolling across the screen.
Bass Pro Shops 500 Race and Commercial Breakdown of 10-29-06
Total number of commercials: 154
Total number of companies or entities advertised: 83
Total number of brief promos of products/services during the race broadcast: 31
Total number of companies or entities advertised in brief promos or crawlers: 27 (companies: Home Depot, Allstate, Ford, UPS, Budweiser, Bank of America, Atlanta Motor Speedway, ‘Heroes’, Toyota, Team Chevy, NAPA, Coca-Cola, Principal Financial, Nextel, State Farm, Craftsman Tools, Prestone, Dodge, Home Depot ‘Home Improvement Week’, NFL Sunday Night Football, Sony HDTV, Ford ‘Race to the Dream’, www.nbcsports.com, Busch Series, NFL on NBC, NASCAR on NBC, Notre Dame football)
Total amount of time these brief promos take during broadcast: app. 3 min. 30 sec.
Also, there is the following race statistics during the broadcast, sponsored by companies:
Harley Davidson ‘Starting Grid’
Allstate ‘Good Hands Driver Award’
DLP ‘Race Recap’
Craftsman ‘Pit Summary’
Cingular ‘Race Talk Question of the Day’
Auto Zone ‘In the Zone Drivers’
NAPA ‘Field Summary’
AFLAC ‘Trivia Question’
Restarts missed due to being away at commercial: 0
Start time to record race/commercial periods: 2:50 P.M.
End time to record race/commercial periods: 6:38 P.M.
Total minutes: 228
Minutes of race broadcast: 154
Minutes of commercials: 74
Breakdown of what the commercials were for, by category:
NBC Previews/Promos
‘Friday Night Lights’ – 3
NFL ‘Sunday Night Football’ – 3
‘Law & Order C.I. and S.V.U.’ – 3
‘Heroes’ – 3
‘My Name is Earl’ – 2
‘Deal or No Deal’ – 2
North Carolina vs. Notre Dame football game – 2
NASCAR on NBC – 1
NFL ‘Football Night in America’ – 1
Total: 20
Movie Previews
‘Casino Royale’ – 1
Total: 1
Local News/Sports/Points-of-Interest in Penna.
www.wpxi.com – 3
Local news – 2
Local sports – 1
Dormont Appliance Centers – 1
Total: 7
Restaurants/Food
Reese’s – 2
Banquet pot pies – 2
McDonald’s – 1
Outback Restaurant – 1
Dominos – 1
Little Debbie – 1
Uncle Charlie’s Sausage – 1
www.mycokerewards.com – 1
Total: 10
Beer
Miller Lite – 2
Budweiser – 1
Budweiser (Earnhardts) – 1
Busch – 1
Total: 5
Car/Truck/Bike
Ford – 5
NAPA – 4
Toyota (DW & MW) – 4
Enterprise Rent-a-Car – 4
Chevrolet – 4
Duralast car batteries at Auto Zone – 3
Dodge – 2
Star/Yamaha – 2
Suzuki ATV – 2
Mobil 1 – 2
Pennzoil Oil – 1
Harley Davidson – 1
www.carfax.com – 1
Sunoco (Jimmie Johnson) – 1
CarQuest – 1
CarQuest (Kyle Busch) – 1
www.automart.com /AutoMart Magazine – 1
Prestone – 1
Total: 40
Credit Cards/Financial
Bank of America – 4
Principal Financial – 3
AmeriQuest (Kenseth, Biffle, Edwards) – 2
Total: 9
Charities
UNICEF – 1
Victory Junction Gang Camp – 1
Total: 2
Insurance
Allstate (Kasey Kahne) – 3
State Farm (Reed Sorenson) – 1
State Farm (Jeff Burton) – 1
AFLAC – 1
Safe Auto – 1
Total: 7
Health/Medical
Luna Eye Centers – 1
Total: 1
Wireless Phone
Nextel (Kevin Harvick) – 3
Nextel – 2
Cingular – 1
Cingular (Jeff Burton) – 1
Total: 7
Home Improvement
Home Depot – 3
Home Depot (Tony Stewart) – 1
Total: 4
Technology
DLP (Tony Raines) – 4
Sony SXRD HDTV – 4
DirecTV – 2
Total: 10
Products/Services for the Home and Personal Use
Craftsman Tools – 3
Wrangler Jeans (Dale Jr.) – 2
Tylenol (various drivers) – 2
Energizer & ‘Cars’ DVD – 2
www.usepropane.com – 1
Gillette Fusion – 1
ADT Security – 1
Sharpie’s Minis – 1
Total: 13
Shipping
Fed Ex (Denny Hamlin) – 2
UPS (Dale Jarrett) – 2
Total: 4
Racing Related
nascar.com superstore – 6
Coca Cola Racing Family – 2
‘Race to the Chase’ – 1
Ford ‘Race to the Dream’ – 1
nascar.com performance – 1
NASCAR Auto Zone Elite Division – 1
NASCAR Busch Series –
Las Vegas Motor Speedway – 1
Texas Motor Speedway – 1
Total: 14
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:
2:50 PM – 2:53 PM -3//2:53 PM – 2:56 PM – 3
2:56 PM – 2:59 PM – 3//2:59 PM – 3:01 PM – 2
3:01 PM – 3:12 PM – 11 //3:12 PM – 3:14 PM – 2
3:14 PM – 3:21 PM – 7 //3:21 PM – 3:24 PM – 3
3:24 PM – 3:31 PM – 7 //3:31 PM – 3:34 PM – 3
3:34 PM – 3:43 PM – 9 //3:43 PM – 3:47 PM – 4
3:47 PM – 3:53 PM – 6 //3:53 PM – 3:56 PM – 3
3:56 PM – 3:57 PM – 1 //3:57 PM – 4:00 PM – 3
4:00 PM – 4:04 PM – 4 //4:04 PM – 4:07 PM – 3
4:07 PM – 4:10 PM – 3 //4:10 PM – 4:13 PM – 3
4:13 PM – 4:20 PM – 7 //4:20 PM – 4:23 PM – 3
4:23 PM – 4:34 PM – 11 //4:34 PM – 4:37 PM – 3
4:37 PM – 4:42 PM – 5 //4:42 PM – 4:45 PM – 3
4:45 PM – 4:49 PM – 4 //4:49 PM – 4:51 PM – 2
4:51 PM – 4:52 PM – 1 //4:52 PM –4:55 PM – 3
4:55 PM – 5:01 PM – 6 //5:01 PM – 5:04 PM – 3
5:04 PM – 5:09 PM – 5 //5:09 PM – 5:12 PM – 3
5:12 PM – 5:17 PM – 5 //5:17 PM – 5:20 PM – 3
5:20 PM – 5:27 PM – 7 //5:27 PM – 5:30 PM – 3
5:30 PM – 5:34 PM – 4 //5:34 PM – 5:36 PM – 2
5:36 PM – 5:37 PM – 1 //5:37 PM – 5:38 PM – 1
5:38 PM – 5:42 PM – 4 //5:42 PM – 5:45 PM – 3
5:45 PM – 5:46 PM – 1 //5:46 PM –5:48 PM – 2
5:48 PM – 5:54 PM – 6 //5:54 PM – 5:56 PM – 2
5:56 PM – 6:01 PM – 5 //6:01 PM – 6:04 PM – 3
6:04 PM – 6:08 PM – 4 //6:08 PM – 6:09 PM – 1
6:09 PM – 6:10 PM – 1//6:10 PM – 6:12 PM – 2
6:12 PM – 6:17 PM – 5 //6:17 PM – 6:18 PM – 1
6:18 PM – 6:22 PM – 4 //6:22 PM – 6:24 PM – 2
6:24 PM – 6:38 PM – 14 //6:38 PM – checkered flag flies
Total race brdcst time: 154 min Total comm. brdcst time: 74 min
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Joe Says:
Oct 30, 11:03 AMWhat I am doing now is recording the race with my dvr and watching it after it is over. So I can FF the commericals.
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donamo6 Says:
Oct 30, 12:48 PMcan someone here do a comparison on this. I see way more commercials in a MLB or NFL, or even a college game. NASCAR doesn’t even come close. I would rather the get strict on the stupid templates so I don’t have to look a cars with crooked body panels/windows. I have been watching this stuff for 25 years, and this racing is crap. Way over -engineered.
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Denise McGlone Says:
Oct 30, 01:06 PMThis is nuts! No wonder ratings are down
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shannon spradlin Says:
Oct 30, 01:53 PMWe have been fans for 45 years, having attended many races through the years. Because of the commercials, we are about to become former fans. It’s just way too much!!!
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Mary P Says:
Oct 30, 03:57 PMIn response to donamo:
Firstly, what you are seeing in MLB and NFL is MORE breaks, but FEWER commercials. On average, a football game runs 1-3 commercials during breaks every 8-10 minutes or so. NASCAR runs 5-7 during the average break every 10 minutes or so. While you may see more breaks in NFL, they don’t last as long. And MLB does NOT cut out during an inning missing pitches or action. They only show when inning warm ups are going on.
During halftime in football, we see plenty of advertising, but the same goes for red flags in a race. If you look back, the races with red flags have a considerable more amount of commercials than a continous NASCAR race.
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Rick Says:
Oct 30, 05:29 PMThey show a few min. of the race and then a few min. of commercials then a few min.of the race and then a few min. of commercials and on and on. I just can’t get into the flow of the race at all. the damm commercials seem like they go on forever during those 3 -4 min each com. break is running.
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Halifax Says:
Oct 31, 11:00 PMNo more live network NASCAR, and no more NASCAR IN CAR because of the commercials. We DVR/PVR the race and watch it a couple of hours after it starts. All of our racing friends do the same (we agree not to call each other for three hours after the race is over). Guess what? NO MORE COMMERCIALS. That’s a lot of money for advertisers to waste, one day they may catch on to the real world and give live racing back to the fans. Enough is enough.
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RODNEY Says:
Oct 31, 11:06 PMI think The damm commercials are a big part of the money in the purse for the race. I do not know for sure how much money but I guess a 1/2 or better. Ticket sales also would help in the amount.What was the $$ for first place/ second and so on. damm commercials have to help in the purse. looking back to a 1st place prize for a nascar race in 1979 $22,000 was a good amount.27 years later 10 times that much for the winner damm commercials have to help.
Like i said I have no idea on how much the damm commercials help. with all the $$ in a race they have to play a important part of the $$
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QUASA MOTO Says:
Oct 31, 11:17 PMThe 48th annual Daytona 500 on Sunday, Feb. 19, America’s biggest and most prestigious motorsports event of the year, will once again carry the biggest purse in the history of stock car racing at more than $18 million.
The posted awards for the “The Great American Race” on Sunday, Feb. 19 will be $18,029,052, an increase of nearly half a million. The posted awards for the 2005 Daytona 500, which was won for a third time by Jeff Gordon, was $17,623,980$
18 million $18 million. Thats not all from ticket sales Damm commercials Help
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Elaine Says:
Nov 1, 11:12 AMThank goodness I read most of the emails regarding the commercials of the Bass 500. I thought I was going crazy and that it was just me noticing how much worse the commercials have gotten recently. I think the guys who tape the races and FF through them later have got it right! I’ve been a fan for over 20 years and was so angry and insulted on Sunday, I almost thought about not watching at all anymore. By the way, does anyone (Nascar, Speed, etc.)ever pay any attention to fan comments ??? I’ve written a few times to Nascar.com and Speed and never received even a “form” email response!
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David Says:
Nov 2, 11:39 AMToday I saw a report that passing was up 18% for the season, up 65% from last fall’s Atlanta race. Data said they had over 4900 passes during the race. Couldn’t tell it by what I saw Sunday. Wonder how many passes (and what percentage) were actually shown in the broadcast?
I’ve always said a good broadcast can’t make a bad race good, but a bad broadcast can make a good race bad. I think that is what we are getting today, cause the stats NASCAR is feeding us and what we are seeing aren’t lining up.
BTW, I’ve been a fan for over forty years and I’ve even quit taping the races. The increase in commercials (and reduction in racing) drives me nuts, but even what racing they do show the coverage is terrible. All you get are long shots of the cars (unless they buy commercial time). Its so bad they have to add graphics to point out which car is which. Used to be that you could see the numbers, see the sponsors and know the car without having to rely on anything.
Not so long ago, the race used to be the main focus of the broadcast. Now the race is just an excuse to put “witty” personalities on to tell us what they would do if they were still racing or wow us with a screen full of graphics or distract us with that infernal scroller (I hate that thing).
In the old days I could tell you every driver, car, sponsor and most crew chiefs because they were shown, mentioned and even talked to during the races. Now there are weeks go by and you never hear a drivers name or see a crew chief interviewed. Does anyone know if Jeff Green is on the circuit this year?
The commercials are too many, but the content of what we get between commercials has gone down to.
How many of the 4900+ passes did NBC show us?
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Paul Cline Says:
Nov 6, 04:54 PMI am not a “commercail” fan, but it is really NASCAR’s fault that there are so many commercails. NASCAR charges the networks to air the race…the price is quite steep…the networks have no choice other than to run as many commercials as they can to recoup their costs.
Nevertheles, there is always NASCAR IN CAR.
PC
Rookie Do’s and Don’ts HeartRacers~HeartBreakers: Bass Pro Shops 500 edition

Oct 30, 09:17 AM
Imagine if NBC (or any network for that matter) only broadcast 3 quarters of a football or basketball game, or 6 innings of a baseball game, or 2 periods of a hockey game. Well, that’s exactly what they are doing with the race broadcast and NA$CAR is letting them do it. We only saw about 335 miles of the 500 miler on Sunday. There is only one way to describe it, PATHETIC!