This past Sunday, for the NASCAR Cup race, it was all about that old saying, “First Things First.” It was the first broadcast of the Cup season for the NBC team. Ross Chastain (coincidentally, driver of the No. 1 team) captured his first career pole for himself and his team; and followed that up with finishing first, and ending up in Victory Lane. Fans watching at home followed along with all of that, and viewed some commercials, too. While doing that does not necessarily have anything to do with a first, commercials are necessary to be able to watch races in the first place. For those who would like to be one of the first to know precisely how many ads there were, and how much time they took during the broadcast, here is this week’s breakdown.
Race and Commercial Breakdown of the 2023 Ally 400
Start time to record race/commercial periods: 7:00 PM
End time to record race/commercial periods: 10:06 PM
Total minutes of complete race broadcast: 186
Minutes of race broadcast: 152
Minutes of traditional commercials: 34
Minutes of side-by-side commercials: 12
Total number of commercials: 109
Total number of companies or entities advertised: 59
Total number of traditional commercials (not split-screen): 81
Total number of companies or entities advertised: 49
Total number of ‘Side-by-Side’ commercials during the broadcast (split-screen): 28
Total number of companies or entities advertised: 18
Number of times NBC utilized ‘Side-by-Side’ commercials during the broadcast: 5
Companies seen the most in commercials during this broadcast: PA NBC local news WPXI (5 times); Toyota (5 times); Xfinity (5 times); Coca-Cola (4 times); Busch Light Beer (4 times); Dodge/Ram trucks (4 times)
Breakdown of what the commercials were, by category:
NBC/USA TV Previews/Promos:
‘Hot Wheels Ultimate Challenge’ nbc.com/hot-wheels-ultimate-champion – 2
‘LA Fire & Rescue’ nbc.com/la-fire-and-rescue – 2
Upcoming Xfinity race on NBC/NBC Sports – 1
College Football on NBC/NBC Sports/Peacock – 1
PlayFootball.com – 1
MLB Baseball on Peacock – 1
Tour de France tourdefrance.nbcsports.com on NBC Sports – 1
‘America’s Got Talent’ nbc.com/americas-got-talent – 1
‘American Ninja Warrior’ nbc.com/american-ninja-warrior – 1
‘Monday Night Raw’ usanetwork.com/wwe-raw – 1
The Open Golf on USA, Peacock – 1
‘Today’ nbc.com/today – 1
Total: 14
Movies
‘Insidious: The Red Door’ insidious.movie – 2
‘Gran Turismo’ granturismo.movie – 1
‘Oppenheimer’ oppenheimermovie.com – 1
‘Kraven the Hunter’ kravenmovie.com – 1
Total: 5
Local News/Sports/Points-of-Interest in Penna.
NBC local news wpxi.com – 5
MeyersRVs.com – 2
BetRivers.com – 1
PA Lottery palottery.state.pa.us/ – 1
Total: 9
Restaurants/Food
Coca-Cola cocacola.com – 2
McDonald’s mcdonalds.com – 1
Mountain Dew mountaindew.com/ – 1
Subway Subway.com – 1
Total: 5
Beer/Alcohol
Busch Light busch.com – 4
Keystone Light keystonelight.com – 2
Total: 6
Car/Truck/Bike
ShopHonda.com shophonda.com – 3
Ram Trucks ram.com – 3
Toyota toyota.com (Toyota drivers) #ToyotaNation – 3
ebay motors ebay.com – 2
GMCDealer.com gmcdealer.com – 2
NissanUSA.com nissanusa.com – 2
Buyatoyota.com buyatoyota.com – 2
Buick buick.com – 1
Dodge dodge.com – 1
Ford ford.com – 1
GoodYear goodyear.com – 1
WeatherTech.com weathertech.com – 1
Total: 22
Insurance/Health
Progressive progressive.com – 1
TearthePaperCeiling.org – 1
UPMCHealthPlan.com upmchealthplan.com/medicare – 1
Total: 3
Wireless Phone
Mint Mobile mintmobile.com – 1
Total: 1
Financial
Ally Bank allybank.com (Alex Bowman) – 3
American Express americanexpress.com – 1
Total: 4
Technology
Amazon amazon.com – 2
Xfinity.com xfinity.com – 2
Viasat.com – 1
Total: 5
Products/Services for the Home and Personal Use
Rinvoq rinvoq.com – 2
Blackstone Products blackstoneproducts.com – 1
Chewy.com – 1
Total: 4
Travel
UniversalOrlando.com – 1
Total: 1
Racing Related
NASCAR.com nascar.com – 1
NASCAR Powerball Playoff powerball.com/nascar-powerball-playoff – 1
Total: 2
Race brdcast times: // Comm. brdcast times:
7:00 PM – 7:13 PM – 13 // 7:13 PM – 7:15 PM – 2
7:15 PM – 7:23 PM – 8 // 7:23 PM – 7:25 PM – 2
7:25 PM – 7:32 PM – 7 // 7:32 PM – 7:35 PM – 3
7:35 PM – 7:43 PM – 8 // 7:43 PM – 7:46 PM – 3
7:46 PM – 7:54 PM – 8 // 7:54 PM – 7:56 PM – 2
7:56 PM – 7:57 PM – 1 // 7:57 PM – 8:00 PM – 3
8:00 PM – 8:09 PM – 9 // 8:09 PM – 8:12 PM – 3
8:12 PM – 8:19 PM – 7 // 8:19 PM – 8:21 PM – 2
8:21 PM – 8:28 PM – 7 // 8:28 PM – 8:30 PM – 2
8:30 PM – 8:40 PM – 10 // 8:40 PM – 8:42 PM – 2
8:42 PM – 9:01 PM – 19 // 9:01 PM – 9:03 PM – 2
9:03 PM – 9:05 PM – 2 // 9:05 PM – 9:07 PM – 2
9:07 PM – 9:23 PM – 16 // 9:23 PM – 9:26 PM – 3
9:26 PM – 9:40 PM – 14 // 9:40 PM – 9:43 PM – 3
9:43 PM – 10:06 PM – 23 // 10:06 PM – checkered flag
Total race brdcst time: 152 // Total comm. brdcst time: 34
Number of companies featured during broadcast: 18
(Ally Bank allybank.com ; AMR Safety Team amr.net ; Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen cheddars.com ; Ball Park ballparkbrand.com ; Hunt Bros. Pizza; Tootsies Orchid Lounge tootsies.net ; Coca-Cola, Coke Zero Sugar; Monster Energy; Busch Beer; Toyota; Geico; Progressive; Liberty Mutual; PODS; Liberty University liberty.edu/24 ; Xfinity; PGA on Golf Channel & Peacock; ‘Hot Wheels Ultimate Challenge’ on NBC; NASCAR.com/Drive ; NASCAR.com/Mobile ; NASCAR.com/Fantasy ; Upcoming Cup Series Chicago Street Race NASCARChicago.com)
Commercials during race broadcast: ‘Side-by-Side’ (‘Thank you!’ to all of the participating sponsors!)
8:50 PM – 8:53 PM
Advance Auto Parts & DieHard Batteries ; Applebee’s; Xfinity; Coke Zero Sugar; PNC Bank; Applebee’s; Upcoming Chicago Street Race NASCARChicago.com
9:16 PM – 9:19 PM
Sonic; PNC Bank; Advance Auto Parts & DieHard Batteries; PODS; NASCAR Powerball Playoff powerball.com/nascar-powerball-playoff ; RichmondRaceway.com
9:32 PM – 9:34 PM
Xfinity.com ; Chevy; Applebee’s; PODS; Chewy.com
9:48 PM – 9:50 PM
Sonic; Advance Auto Parts & DieHard Batteries; PNC Bank; TearthePaperCeiling.org
9:54 PM – 9:56 PM
Powerball Playoff powerball.com/nascar-powerball-playoff ; Coke Zero Sugar; Xfinity.com ; Applebee’s; NHMS.com ; ‘AGT’ on NBC