For those of you NASCAR fans that like stats and love to hate commercials, here is the breakdown from the race on Sunday afternoon. This breakdown is thoroughly unprofessional, and, hopefully, easy-to-understand.

I started recording the times as the Invocation for the race was given at 2:11 PM, and stopped at the waving of the checkered flag at 5:45 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.

Race and Commercial Breakdown of the Food City 500 03-25-08

Total number of commercials: 138

Total number of companies or entities advertised: 64

Total number of brief promos of products/services during the race broadcast: 28

Total number of companies or entities advertised in brief promos or crawlers: 27 (companies: Chevy, State Farm, McDonald’s, Nextel, Budweiser, www.foxsports.com Dale Jr. ‘Win a Silverado’, Ford, NAPA, Wendy’s, FedEx, Auto Zone, Havoline, Coca-Cola, Allstate, UPS, Fox Sports, Dodge, Wrangler jeans, Lowes, Dominos, AT&T/Cingular, Enterprise, DLP, KFC, DirecTV, Q Motor Oil, Subway, Ward Burton Wildlife Foundation)

Total amount of time these brief promos take during broadcast: app. 2 min. 30 sec.

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

FedEx ‘Letter of the Week’
Budweiser ‘Bud Pole Award’
DLP ‘Ultimate Picture Cam’
AT&T/Cingular ‘Virtual Crew Chief Question’
Dominos ‘Hot Lap’
State Farm ‘Safety Report’
Allstate ‘Good Hands Award’
NAPA ‘Race Summary’
Dodge ‘Chargers of the Race’
Chevrolet ‘In-Car’
Toyota ‘Top Performers of the Race’
Ford ‘Cut Away Car’
Dominos ‘Race Summary’
DLP ‘Amazing Moment’
Q Motor Oil ‘Race Summary’
Nextel ‘Call of the Race’

Items of interest this week: ABC missed more than one restart during the Busch race of Saturday. At one point during Sunday’s race, Fox returned from commercial and did an app. 25 seconds of promos, nearly missing one restart. Just as the cameras focused on the track, the green flag flew and the cars surged forward. Close one. So far this year, I have not recorded Fox missing one restart.

Start time to record race/commercial periods: 2:11 P.M.
End time to record race/commercial periods: 5:45 P.M.

Total minutes: 214

Minutes of race broadcast: 154
Minutes of commercials: 60

Breakdown of what the commercials were for, by category:

Fox Previews/Promos

‘American Idol’ – 3
Baseball on Fox – 2
‘24’ – 2
‘House’ – 2
‘Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?’ – 2
‘The Simpsons’ – 2
‘King of the Hill’ – 2
‘Family Guy’ – 2
‘American Dad’ – 1
‘On the Lot’ – 1
‘Bones’ – 1
‘Prison Break’ – 1
‘The Riches’ – 1
Seinfeld – 1
‘Frasier’ – 1
Fox Sports in HD, brought to you by DirecTV – 1

Total: 25

Movies:

‘Blades of Glory’ – 2
‘Meet the Robinsons’ – 1

Total: 3

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

Local news – 1

Total: 1

Restaurants/Food

McDonald’s – 6
KFC – 4
Dominos (David Reutimann) – 3
Wendy’s – 2
www.mycokerewards.com (various claymation drivers) – 2
Subway (Tony Stewart) – 2
Subway – 1
King’s Restaurant – 1
www.mycokerewards.com – 1

Total: 22

Beer

Budweiser (Dale Jr.) – 1
Budweiser – 1
Labatt Blue Light www.labatt.com – 1

Total: 3

Car/Truck/Bike

Dodge – 4
Chevrolet – 4
Auto Zone – 4
Toyota (Todd Bodine) – 3
Toyota – 3
Havoline – 2
Ford – 2
NAPA (Dale Jarrett & Michael Waltrip) – 2
Enterprise Rent-a-Car (Dale Earnhardt Jr.) – 2
Chevrolet (Tony Stewart & Dale Earnhardt Jr.) – 2
Q Torque Motor Oil (Jimmie Johnson) – 2
www.can-am.brp.com – 2
Q Torque Motor Oil – 1
Chevrolet www.pachevydeals.com – 1
Duralast at Auto Zone – 1
www.fordvehicles.com – 1
Hyundai – 1
Suzuki – 1
Chevrolet (Dale Earnhardt Jr.) – 1
Star/Yamaha – 1
Shell (Kevin Harvick) – 1

Total: 41

Credit Cards/Financial

Chase – 1

Total: 1

Insurance

Allstate (Kasey Kahne) – 3
State Farm (Jeff Burton) – 2
State Farm (Reed Sorenson) – 1

Total: 6

Wireless Phone

Nextel (Elliott Sadler & Jimmie Johnson) – 2
AT&T/Cingular – 2
AT&T/Cingular (Jeff Burton) – 1
Nextel – 1

Total: 6

Home Improvement

Kobalt Tools at Lowes (Jimmie Johnson, Chad Knaus) – 1
John Deere – 1

Total: 2

Technology

DLP (Tony Raines) – 3
DirecTV – 3
Verizon – 2
Comcast HDTV – 1
Sprint www.sprint.com/mobilebroadband – 1

Total: 10

Products/Services for the Home and Personal Use

Wrangler jeans (Dale Earnhardt Jr.) – 1
Nexium http://www.astrazeneca.com – 1
Lipitor www.lipitor.com – 1
Degree for Men – 1
www.consolenergy.com – 1

Total: 5

Shipping

UPS (Dale Jarrett) – 2
Fed Ex (Denny Hamlin) – 1
UPS (Dale Jarrett, Ned Jarrett) – 1

Total: 4

Racing Related

nascar.com Track Pass Race View – 5
nascar.com – 1
nascar.com/performance – 1
nascar.com/foundation celebrates NASCAR Day’ on May 18
Texas Motor Speedway – 1

Total: 9

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:

2:11 PM – 2:13 PM – 2 // 2:13 PM – 2:16 PM – 3

2:16 PM – 2:19 PM – 3 // 2:19 PM – 2:22 PM – 3

2:22 PM – 2:34 PM – 12 // 2:34 PM – 2:37 PM – 3

2:37 PM – 2:44 PM – 7 // 2:44 PM – 2:47 PM – 3

2:47 PM – 2:58 PM – 11 // 2:58 PM – 3:01 PM – 3

3:01 PM – 3:06 PM – 5 // 3:06 PM – 3:08 PM – 2

3:08 PM – 3:15 PM – 7 // 3:15 PM – 3:17 PM – 2

3:17 PM – 3:22 PM – 5 // 3:22 PM – 3:24 PM – 2

3:24 PM – 3:29 PM – 5 // 3:29 PM – 3:32 PM – 3

3:32 PM – 3:44 PM – 12 // 3:44 PM – 3:46 PM – 2

3:46 PM – 3:52 PM – 6 // 3:52 PM – 3:55 PM – 3

3:55 PM – 3:58 PM – 3 // 3:58 PM – 4:01 PM – 3

4:01 PM – 4:09 PM – 8 // 4:09 PM – 4:12 PM – 3

4:12 PM – 4:20 PM – 8 // 4:20 PM – 4:23 PM – 3

4:23 PM – 4:29 PM – 6 // 4:29 PM – 4:32 PM – 3

4:32 PM – 4:38 PM – 6 // 4:38 PM – 4:41 PM – 3

4:41 PM – 4:46 PM – 5 // 4:46 PM – 4:48 PM – 2

4:48 PM – 4:51 PM – 3 // 4:51 PM – 4:53 PM – 2

4:53 PM – 4:55 PM – 2 // 4:55 PM – 4:58 PM – 3

4:58 PM – 5:06 PM – 8 // 5:06 PM – 5:08 PM – 2

5:08 PM – 5:14 PM – 6 // 5:14 PM – 5:17 PM – 3

5:17 PM – 5:25 PM – 8 // 5:25 PM – 5:29 PM – 4

5:29 PM – 5:45 PM – 16 // 5:45 PM – checkered flag flies

Total race brdcst time: 154 min Total comm. brdcst time: 60 min