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

I started recording the times as the Invocation for the race was given at 8:30 PM, and stopped at the waving of the checkered flag at 11:41 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.

There are plans in the future for more stats from the race. Once we reach September, when we began doing these breakdowns last year, we will be able to make side-by-side comparisons.

Race and Commercial Breakdown of the Subway Fresh Fit 500 04-21-07

Total number of commercials: 127

Total number of companies or entities advertised: 68

Total number of brief promos of products/services during the race broadcast: 32

Total number of companies or entities advertised in brief promos or crawlers: 24 (companies: Ford, State Farm, Nextel, Subway, Budweiser, FedEx, Coca-Cola, Shell, Dodge, AT&T/Cingular, Coors Light, Allstate, Ward Burton Wildlife Foundation, VA Tech , DLP, Sunoco, Paramount Pictures movie ‘Next’, Toyota, NASCAR on Fox, Allstate, UPS sponsors fantasy racing on Fox Sports, Tom Jensen ‘The Answer Man’ at Fox Sports)
Total amount of time these brief promos take during broadcast: app. 4 min. 5 sec.

How much time was spent in the Hollywood Hotel this week: Some fans have been complaining about how much time Fox spends with Chris Myers and Jeff Hammond in the Hollywood Hotel while the racing is on. Generally these breaks only occur during cautions, or if during green-flag racing, they keep the camera on the racing and it is just voice-overs by Myers and Hammond. Many times the broadcast is begun with Myers and Hammond, briefly seen in the Hotel interspersed with shots of pit road, the audience, and the cars on the track. For this particular racing Saturday, the broadcast began with Chris Myers, Jeff Hammond, and Darrell Waltrip in the booth, and in voiceovers for the first eight minutes. Throughout the race, they did not go back to the Hollywood Hotel, but there were a few voiceovers by Myers and Hammond (and Hammond was featured in his usual pieces with the cutaway car, and the State Farm Safety Report)

Items of interest this week: There were some audio problems during the race that necessitated a commercial break for the purpose of having time to solve the problem. At 11:05 PM Chris Myers and Jeff Hammond were heard doing voiceovers that was very hard to hear; but when they flipped back to the booth it was no better for Mike Joy. At 11:08 PM they cut to the commercials. Upon their return at 11:11 PM there were still audio difficulties, which Mike Joy apologized for. At 11:13 PM, the audio portion was back to normal.

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

Auto Zone ‘Driving Zone’
Budweiser ‘Bud Pole Award’
FedEx ‘Race Trax Question’
AT&T/Cingular ‘Virtual Crew Chief Question’
Dodge ‘Avengers of the Race’
Toyota ‘Top Performers of the Race’
DLP ‘Amazing Moment’
Allstate ‘Good Hands Driver Award’
Dodge ‘In-Car’
State Farm Safety Report
Ford ‘Bold Moves’
Nextel ‘Getting it Done Call of the Race’
NAPA Race Summary
DLP ‘Ultimate Picture Cam’

Start time to record race/commercial periods: 8:30 PM
End time to record race/commercial periods: 11:41 PM

Total minutes: 191

Minutes of race broadcast: 136
Minutes of commercials: 55

Breakdown of what the commercials were for, by category:

Fox Previews/Promos

‘Drive’ – 3
‘Seinfeld’ – 2
‘24’ – 2
‘American Idol’ – 2
Baseball on Fox – 1
‘On the Lot’ – 1
‘The Shield’ – 1
‘House’ – 1
‘The Simpsons’ – 1
‘Family Guy’ – 1
‘The War at Home’ – 1
‘King of the Hill’ – 1
‘Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?’ – 1
Fox Sports in HD presented by DirecTV – 1

Total: 19

Movies

‘Next’ – 3
‘Fracture’ – 2
‘Night at the Museum’ – 1
‘Delta Farce’ – 1
‘Spiderman 3’ – 1

Total: 8

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

Local news – 2

Total: 2

Restaurants/Food

Subway (Tony Stewart) – 3
Subway – 2
Quiznos – 1
mycokerewards.com (various claymation drivers) – 1
mycokerewards.com – 1
Diet Mountain Dew – 1

Total: 9

Beer

Coors Light – 4
Budweiser – 2
Budweiser (Dale Jr.) – 1

Total: 7

Car/Truck/Bike

Ford – 4
Shell – 4
Znet at Auto Zone – 4
Dodge – 3
Toyota – 3
Fram Oil Filters – 2
Q Torque Motor Oil – 2
Ford (various drivers) – 2
Yamaha – 2
NAPA – 2
Toyota – 2
Honda – 1
Chevrolet – 1
Armor All – 1
Polaris ATV – 1
FeatherLite trailers – 1
Sunoco – 1

Total: 36

Insurance

Allstate – 2
State Farm – 2

Total: 4

Wireless Phone

Nextel – 4
AT&T/Cingular – 2

Total: 6

Home Improvement

Home Depot – 1
Kobalt Tools at Lowes – 1
John Deere – 1
Craftsman Tools – 1

Total: 4

Technology

DirecTV – 3
DLP – 2
Sprint Mobile Broadband – 1

Total: 6

Business Resources

Equipco – 1

Total: 1

Products/Services for the Home and Personal Use

Mitchum – 4
Men’s Wearhouse – 2
Head ‘n Shoulders – 1
Prilosec OTC (Jeff Burton) – 1
Oral B – 1
Gillette Fusion Phantom – 1
Degree for Men – 1
Consol Energy – 1

Total: 12

Shipping

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

Total: 4

Racing Related

nascar.com Track Pass Race View – 4
NASCAR All Star Challenge – 2
nascar.com/performance – 1
Talladega Superspeedway – 1
nascar.com/foundation celebrates ‘NASCAR Day’ on May 18 – 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:

8:30 PM – 8:33 PM – 3 // 8:33 PM – 8:35 PM – 2

8:35 PM – 8:42 PM – 7 // 8:42 PM – 8:44 PM – 2

8:44 PM – 8:54 PM – 10 // 8:54 PM –8:57 PM – 3

8:57 PM – 9:04 PM – 7 // 9:04 PM – 9:07 PM – 3

9:07 PM – 9:12 PM – 5 // 9:12 PM – 9:15 PM – 3

9:15 PM – 9:22 PM – 7 // 9:22 PM – 9:25 PM – 3

9:25 PM – 9:30 PM – 5 // 9:30 PM – 9:33 PM – 3

9:33 PM – 9:42 PM – 9 // 9:42 PM – 9:45 PM – 3

9:45 PM – 9:53 PM – 8 // 9:53 PM – 9:56 PM – 3

9:56 PM – 10:03 PM – 7 // 10:03 PM –10:06 PM – 3

10:06 PM – 10:10 PM – 4 // 10:10 PM – 10:13 PM – 3

10:13 PM – 10:23 PM – 10 // 10:23 PM – 10:26 PM – 3

10:26 PM – 10:30 PM – 4 // 10:30 PM –10:32 PM – 2

10:32 PM – 10:37 PM – 5 // 10:37 PM – 10:40 PM – 3

10:40 PM – 10:44 PM – 4 // 10:44 PM – 10:46 PM – 2

10:46 PM – 10:55 PM – 9 // 10:55 PM – 10:58 PM – 3

10:58 PM – 11:02 PM – 4 // 11:02 PM – 11:05 PM – 3

11:05 PM – 11:08 PM – 3 // 11:08 PM – 11:11 PM – 3

11:11 PM – 11:17 PM – 6 // 11:17 PM – 11:19 PM – 2

11:19 PM – 11:26 PM – 7 // 11:26 PM – 11:29 PM – 3

11:29 PM – 11:41 PM – 12 // 11:41 PM – checkered flag flies

Total race brdcst time: 136 Total comm. brdcst time: 55

Please see the companion article, ‘How often were different drivers focused on during the race?’