During the pre-race opening segment of Sunday’s Cup race, Fox Sports ran a teaser spot with the main theme that the racing at COTA is different… is ‘weird’… with all that twisting and turning on the track, instead of just turning left. Then Brendan Hunt, right before giving the call to start the engines, declared, “Let’s get WEIRD!” While the day had included the smashing of a pumpkin from a great height, and drivers normally found in open-wheel racing strapping into stock cars, the race wasn’t necessarily weird. Additionally, the broadcast included commercials, which, as everyone knows, is not weird at all. For those who like to know precisely how many commercials there were, and how much time they took during the broadcast, here is this week’s breakdown.
Race and Commercial Breakdown of the 2023 EchoPark Automotive Texas Grand Prix
Start time to record race/commercial periods: 3:30 PM
End time to record race/commercial periods: 7:28 PM
Total minutes of complete race broadcast: 238
Minutes of race broadcast: 200
Minutes of traditional commercials: 38
Minutes of side-by-side commercials: 10
Total number of commercials: 111
Total number of companies or entities advertised: 54
Total number of traditional commercials (not split-screen): 84
Total number of companies or entities advertised: 46
Total number of ‘Side-by-Side’ commercials during the broadcast (split-screen): 27
Total number of companies or entities advertised: 23
Number of times Fox utilized ‘Side-by-Side’ commercials during the broadcast: 4
Companies seen the most in commercials during this broadcast: Coca-Cola (11 times); Toyota (8 times); Geico (7 times); Xfinity (6 times); Wendy’s (5 times)
Breakdown of what the commercials were, by category:
Fox/FS1
Upcoming Cup race on Fox/FS1 foxsports.com/nascar ; Coca-Cola, Geico, Xfinity, Busch Beer NASCAR.com/Tickets – 1
Upcoming Xfinity race on Fox/FS1 foxsports.com/nascar – 1
USFL theusfl.com – 1
‘Big Bang Theory’ and ‘Young Sheldon’ – 1
‘Friday Night Smackdown’ fox.com/wwe-friday-night-smackdown – 1
‘Race Hub’ foxsports.com/nascar/racehub – 1
‘Seinfeld’ – 1
Total: 7
Local News/Sports/Points-of-Interest in Penna.
NBC local news wpxi.com on Fox fox.com – 2
A Comfort Service acomfortservice.com – 1
PA Lottery palottery.state.pa.us/ – 1
Total: 4
Restaurants/Food
Wendy’s wendys.com – 5
Coke Zero Sugar us.coca-cola.com/zero-sugar – 5
Reese’s reeses.com – 3
Arby’s arbys.com – 1
Celsius.com (Corey LaJoie, Justin Haley) – 1
Door Dash doordash.com – 1
Dr. Pepper drpepper.com – 1
Total: 17
Beer/Alcohol
Busch Light busch.com – 1
Total: 1
Car/Truck/Bike
Toyota toyota.com (Toyota drivers) #ToyotaNation – 4
VW Dealer vwdealer.com – 4
Ram Trucks ram.com – 3
Ford ford.com – 3
Buyatoyota.com buyatoyota.com – 2
ebay motors ebay.com – 1
CarFax.com carfax.com – 1
Chevy chevy.com – 1
GoodYear goodyear.com – 1
Vroom vroom.com – 1
Total: 21
Insurance/Health
Geico.com geico.com – 3
Paxlovid.com – 3
SafeAuto safeauto.com – 2
UPMC/CommunityImpact upmc.com/communityimpact – 1
Total: 9
Wireless Phone
T-Mobile/SeeWhy t-mobile.com/seewhy – 3
Verizon verizon.com – 3
Total: 6
Home Improvement
Mahindra mahindrausa.com (Tony Stewart, Chase Briscoe) – 3
ACE Hardware ACEHardware.com – 2
Kioti tractors kioti.com – 1
Total: 6
Financial
Bank of America/CustomizedCash bankofamerica.com/CustomizedCash – 2
Total: 2
Education
Pennsylvania Western University PennWest.edu – 1
Total: 1
Technology
Indeed indeed.com – 2
Total: 2
Products/Services for the Home and Personal Use
Rybelsus.com – 2
Bass Pro Shops BassPro.com & Cabela’s cabelas.com and TrackerBoats.com – 1
Chewy.com – 1
Howard Hanna howardhanna.com/money-back-guarantee – 1
Krystexxa.com – 1
Natures Bounty naturesbounty.com – 1
Total: 7
Racing Related
NASCAR.com nascar.com – 1
Total: 1
Race brdcast times: // Comm. brdcast times:
3:30 PM – 3:33 PM – 3 // 3:33 PM – 3:35 PM – 2
3:35 PM – 3:40 PM – 5 // 3:40 PM – 3:42 PM – 2
3:42 PM – 4:00 PM – 18 // 4:00 PM – 4:03 PM – 3
4:03 PM – 4:04 PM – 1 // 4:04 PM – 4:07 PM – 3
4:07 PM – 4:13 PM – 6 // 4:13 PM – 4:16 PM – 3
4:16 PM – 4:24 PM – 8 // 4:24 PM – 4:27 PM – 3
4:27 PM – 4:31 PM – 4 // 4:31 PM – 4:34 PM – 3
4:34 PM – 4:39 PM – 5 // 4:39 PM – 4:42 PM – 3
4:42 PM – 5:08 PM – 26 // 5:08 PM – 5:11 PM – 3
5:11 PM – 5:21 PM – 10 // 5:21 PM – 5:24 PM – 3
5:24 PM – 5:29 PM – 5 // 5:29 PM – 5:32 PM – 3
5:32 PM – 5:40 PM – 8 // 5:40 PM – 5:43 PM – 3
5:43 PM – 6:27 PM – 44 // 6:27 PM – 6:29 PM – 2
6:29 PM – 6:38 PM – 9 // 6:38 PM – 6:40 PM – 2
6:40 PM – 7:28 PM – 48 // 7:28 PM – checkered flag
Total race brdcst time: 200 // Total comm. brdcst time: 38
Number of companies featured during broadcast: 22
(Fox Bet Super 6 app; EchoPark echopark.com ; SpeedwayMotorsports.com/TakeittotheTrack ; Door Dash; Coca-Cola, Coke Zero Sugar; Celsius; Monster Energy; Busch Beer; Ford Performance; Toyota; Ram Trucks; Mahindra Tractors; GoodYear; Geico; Money Lion moneylion.com ; Bank of America; Credit One Bank; Xfinity; Verizon/FrontLine ; MLB on Fox Sports; ‘Friday Night Smackdown’ on Fox; ‘Race Hub’ on FS1; Upcoming Cup race)
Commercials during race broadcast: ‘Side-by-Side’ (‘Thank you!’ to all of the participating sponsors!)
4:51 PM – 4:54 PM
Toyota; Upcoming Cup race, Coca-Cola, Busch Beer, Geico, Xfinity, NASCAR.com/Tickets; Xfinity; Coke Zero Sugar; Bristol dirt race on Fox; ebay motors; Door Dash; TalladegaSuperSpeedway.com
5:51 PM – 5:54 PM
T-Mobile/SeeWhy ; Ram Trucks; PODS; KansasSpeedway.com ; iheart radio Music Awards on Fox; NASCAR.com
6:05 PM – 6:07 PM
Ford; Upcoming Cup race, Coca-Cola, Busch Beer, Geico, Xfinity, NASCAR.com/Tickets; WeatherTech.com ; 5 Hour Energy drink; Fox Nation; MLB on Fox; Upcoming Craftsman Truck Series race
6:16 PM – 6:18 PM
Toyota (various drivers); Coke Zero Sugar; Verizon; Upcoming Bristol dirt race; MLB on Fox; Upcoming Cup race, Coca-Cola, Busch Beer, Geico, Xfinity, NASCAR.com/Tickets