Let’s be frank: most people are not fond of commercials. It has become as common to complain about ads as it is to complain about the weather. For NASCAR fans, while they know the reality is that without the commercial interruptions during a race, there would be no race, that does little to stop them from complaining. Recently, there was a dust up when announcer Mike Joy stated during a recent race there would only be one more side-by-side commercial break, but a few more traditional breaks occurred. The mix up of what he meant about the number of ads left in the race inspired Joy to tweet about ‘keyboard warriors,’ and their misunderstanding of his statement. During this week’s race, on Jeff Gluck’s tweet page, a fan named Neal Lawson, tweeted, “If you say commercial three times in a mirror, Mike Joy appears like the boogie man.” Obviously, irritation at commercial interruptions can bring out a lot of annoyance, ire, and humor. For those fans who like to know precisely how many commercials there were for Sunday’s race, and how much time they took during the broadcast, here is this week’s breakdown.
Race and Commercial Breakdown of the 2023 Ambetter Health 400
Start time to record race/commercial periods: 3:00 PM
End time to record race/commercial periods: 6:14 PM
Total minutes of complete race broadcast: 194
Minutes of race broadcast: 149
Minutes of traditional commercials: 45
Minutes of side-by-side commercials: 11
Total number of commercials: 130
Total number of companies or entities advertised: 69
Total number of traditional commercials (not split-screen): 103
Total number of companies or entities advertised: 63
Total number of ‘Side-by-Side’ commercials during the broadcast (split-screen): 27
Total number of companies or entities advertised: 25
Number of times Fox utilized ‘Side-by-Side’ commercials during the broadcast: 4
Companies seen the most in commercials during this broadcast: Coca-Cola (7 times); Geico (7 times); Xfinity (6 times); Wendy’s (6 times); Busch Beer (5 times); Toyota (5 times)
Breakdown of what the commercials were, by category:
Fox/FS1
USFL theusfl.com – 4
Upcoming Cup race on Fox/FS1 foxsports.com/nascar ; Coca-Cola, Geico, Xfinity, Busch Beer NASCAR.com/Tickets – 1
World Baseball Classic on Fox Sports – 1
‘Animal Control’ on Fox fox.com/animal-control – 1
‘Judge Judy’ ‘Big Bang Theory’ – 1
iHeart Radio iheart.comMusic Awards on Fox – 1
‘The Masked Singer’ fox.com/the-masked-singer/ – 1
‘Maury’ ‘Jerry Springer’ ‘Steve Wilkos’ – 1
‘Race Hub’ foxsports.com/nascar/racehub – 1
Total: 12
Movies
‘The Pope’s Exorcist’ thepopes-exorcist.movie #thepopesexorcist – 2
Total: 2
Local News/Sports/Points-of-Interest in Penna.
Giant Eagle gianteagle.com – 2
NBC local news wpxi.com on Fox fox.com – 1
Fox 53 wpgh53.com – 1
A Comfort Service acomfortservice.com – 1
PA Lottery palottery.state.pa.us/ – 1
Total: 6
Restaurants/Food
Wendy’s wendys.com – 4
Reese’s reeses.com – 3
Coke Zero Sugar us.coca-cola.com/zero-sugar – 3
Dr. Pepper drpepper.com – 2
Papa Johns papajohns.com – 2
Body Armor drinkbodyarmor.com/ #DrinkBodyArmor (Ryan Blaney) – 1
Celsius.com (Corey LaJoie) – 1
McDonald’s mcdonalds.com – 1
Total: 17
Beer/Alcohol
Busch Light busch.com – 2
Total: 2
Car/Truck/Bike
VW Dealer vwdealer.com – 4
Ford ford.com – 3
Toyota toyota.com (Toyota drivers) #ToyotaNation – 3
Chevy chevy.com – 2
ebay motors ebay.com – 2
GoodYear goodyear.com – 2
Ram Trucks ram.com – 1
Toyota toyota.com – 1
WeatherTech.com weathertech.com – 1
Total: 19
Insurance/Health
Geico.com geico.com – 4
Paxlovid.com – 2
SafeAuto safeauto.com – 2
Vaccines.gov – 1
Dexcom Dexcom.com – 1
Progressive progressive.com – 1
GetRealAboutDiabetes.com – 1
Liberty Mutual libertymutual.com – 1
Total: 13
Wireless Phone
Verizon vzw.com – 3
Total: 3
Home Improvement
Kioti tractors kioti.com – 2
ACE Hardware ACEHardware.com – 1
Total: 3
Financial
Bank of America/CustomizedCash bankofamerica.com/CustomizedCash – 2
Ally Bank allybank.com (Alex Bowman) – 1
Total: 3
Education
Pennsylvania Western University PennWest.edu – 1
Total: 1
Technology
T-Mobile/tellmemore t-mobile.com/tellmemore – 2
Comcast Business comcast.com/business – 1
Indeed indeed.com – 1
T-Mobile/5GInternet tmobile.com/5GInternet – 1
Xfinity.com xfinity.com – 1
Total: 6
Products/Services for the Home and Personal Use
PODS pods.com – 2
Entresto.com entresto.com – 2
Just for Men ControlGX Shampoo justformen.com/control-gx-shampoo.html/ – 2
Ashley Homestore ashleyhomestore.com – 1
Bass Pro Shops BassPro.com & Cabela’s cabelas.com and TrackerBoats.com – 1
Breztri breztri.com – 1
Chewy.com – 1
forhims.com – 1
Krystexxa.com – 1
Trelegy trelegy.com – 1
Total: 13
Religion
HeGetsUs.com/LoveYourEnemies hegetsus.com/loveyourenemies – 1
Total: 1
Racing Related
Martinsville Speedway martinsvillespeedway.com – 1
Talladega Superspeedway talladegasuperspeedway.com/ – 1
Total: 2
Race brdcast times: // Comm. brdcast times:
3:00 PM – 3:03 PM – 3 // 3:03 PM – 3:06 PM – 3
3:06 PM – 3:09 PM – 3 // 3:09 PM – 3:11 PM – 2
3:11 PM – 3:27 PM – 16 // 3:27 PM – 3:29 PM – 2
3:29 PM – 3:39 PM – 10 // 3:39 PM – 3:41 PM – 2
3:41 PM – 3:46 PM – 5 // 3:46 PM – 3:49 PM – 3
3:49 PM – 3:57 PM – 8 // 3:57 PM – 4:00 PM – 3
4:00 PM – 4:04 PM – 4 // 4:04 PM – 4:06 PM – 2
4:06 PM – 4:13 PM – 7 // 4:13 PM – 4:16 PM – 3
4:16 PM – 4:21 PM – 5 // 4:21 PM – 4:24 PM – 3
4:24 PM – 4:29 PM – 5 // 4:29 PM – 4:32 PM – 3
4:32 PM – 4:35 PM – 3 // 4:35 PM – 4:37 PM – 2
4:37 PM – 4:56 PM – 19 // 4:56 PM – 4:59 PM – 3
4:59 PM – 5:02 PM – 3 // 5:02 PM – 5:05 PM – 3
5:05 PM – 5:22 PM – 17 // 5:22 PM – 5:26 PM – 4
5:26 PM – 5:28 PM – 2 // 5:28 PM – 5:31 PM – 3
5:31 PM – 5:39 PM – 8 // 5:39 PM – 5:40 PM – 1
5:40 PM – 5:42 PM – 2 // 5:42 PM – 5:45 PM – 3
5:45 PM – 6:14 PM – 29 // 6:14 PM – checkered flag
Total race brdcst time: 149 // Total comm. brdcst time: 45
Number of companies featured during broadcast: 26
(Fox Bet Super 6 app; Ambetter ambetterhealth.com ; Door Dash; Coca-Cola, Coke Zero Sugar; Monster Energy; Celsius Celsius.com ; Busch Beer; Ford Performance; Toyota; Ram Trucks; GoodYear; Mahindra Tractors; Geico; Progressive; Advent Health; Breztri; PODS; Credit One Bank; Bank of America; Ruoff Mortgage ruoff.com ; Xfinity; Verizon/FrontLine ; USFL on Fox, FS1 & NBC; MLB on Fox, ‘World Baseball Classic’ on Fox Sports; ‘Race Hub’ on FS1; Upcoming Bristol race on dirt bristolmotorspeedway.com , Upcoming Coca-Cola 600, Upcoming Talladega race; Next week’s Cup race)
Commercials during race broadcast: ‘Side-by-Side’ (‘Thank you!’ to all of the participating sponsors!)
3:52 PM – 3:55 PM
Ram Trucks; Xfinity; Wendy’s; Ashley’s Furniture; Liberty Mutual; Gillette; RichmondRaceway.com
4:48 PM – 4:50 PM
Ford Performance; Door Dash; Verizon/FrontLine ; Progressive; ‘The Masked Singer’ on Fox; Upcoming Cup race, Coca-Cola, Busch Beer, Geico, Xfinity, NASCAR.com/Tickets
5:13 PM – 5:16 PM
Progressive; Wendy’s; PODS; NAPA; Busch Light; Fox Nation; Upcoming Cup race, Coca-Cola, Busch Beer, Geico, Xfinity, NASCAR.com/Tickets
6:00 PM – 6:03 PM
Toyota (various drivers); T-Mobile/TellMeMore ; MLB on Fox; Coke Zero Sugar; USAA; Upcoming Xfinity Series race; Vick’s Nyquil Severe