Commercial breakdown: 2020 South Point 400

If you watched Sunday’s Cup race broadcast from Las Vegas Motor Speedway, you were reminded eight times to visit your local Sonic drive in restaurant. If you look at that statistic alone, you might be inclined to think that it’s an unnecessary waste of time to tell you more than once. If you like Sonic, you will go there whether or not you watch the ads; if you don’t like their fare you probably won’t change your mind and go. Besides hearing about a certain item they are hawking (such as Toasted S’More shakes), a commercial isn’t likely to affect your dining choices.

As commercials are a reality for most regular network broadcasts, rather than let them irritate you, think of how it would be without them. Are you old enough to remember when races weren’t on TV at all, or not in their entirety? Thinking of it that way may make it easier to endure the sponsors and their messages. For those who would like to know precisely how many there were this past weekend, and how much time they took during the broadcast, here is the breakdown.

Race and Commercial Breakdown of the 2020 South Point 400

Start time to record race/commercial periods: 7:00 PM
End time to record race/commercial periods: 10:22 PM
Total minutes of complete race broadcast: 202
Minutes of race broadcast: 166
Minutes of traditional commercials: 36
Minutes of side-by-side commercials: 10

Total number of commercials: 110
Total number of companies or entities advertised: 43
Total number of traditional commercials (not split-screen): 86
Total number of companies or entities advertised: 40
Total number of ‘Side-by-Side’ commercials during the broadcast (split-screen): 24
Total number of companies or entities advertised: 17
Number of times NBCSN utilized ‘Side-by-Side’ commercials during the broadcast: 5

Companies seen the most in commercials during this broadcast: Sonic (8 times); Applebee’s (7 times); Xfinity (7 times); Geico (7 times); Coca-Cola (6 times); Upcoming Cup race (5 times); Ram Trucks (5 times); Verizon (5 times)

Breakdown of what the commercials were, by category:

NBC/TV Previews/Promos:

‘Amber Ruffin’ on PeacockTV.com – 3
The Preakness on NBC – 3
Upcoming Cup race on NBC/NBC Sports – 3
IndyCar indycar.com on NBC/NBC Sports – 2
Sunday Night Football on NBC/NBC Sports – 2
NHL on NBC/NBC Sports nbcsports.com/nhl – 2
‘The Bradshaw Bunch’ on e! eonline.com – 1

Total: 16

Movies

‘Tenet’ tenetfilm.com – 1

Total: 1

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

ArnoldFurnitureinc.com – 1
Cochran cochran.com – 1

Total: 2

Restaurants/Food

Sonic sonicdrivein.com – 6
Applebees applebees.com – 3
Coca-Cola cocacola.com – 3
Wendy’s wendys.com – 1

Total: 13

Beer/Alcohol

Busch busch.com – 1

Total: 1

Car/Truck/Bike

Ram Trucks ram.com – 5
TireRack.com tirerack.com – 3
Toyota toyota.com – 3
Chevy chevy.com – 2
Mother’s Car Care mothers.com – 2
WeatherTech.com weathertech.com – 2
Advance Auto advanceautoparts.com – 2
Cadillac cadillac.com – 1
Ford ford.com – 1
GoodYear goodyear.com – 1
Mercedes Benz Vans MBVans.com – 1
NissanUSA.com nissanusa.com – 1
Buyatoyota.com buyatoyota.com – 1

Total: 25

Insurance/Health

Geico.com geico.com – 4
Liberty Mutual libertymutual.com – 3
USAA.com usaa.com – 2
Progressive progressive.com – 1

Total: 10

Wireless Phone

Cricket Wireless cricketwireless.com – 4

Total: 4

Home Improvement

Kioti tractors kioti.com – 2

Total: 2

Technology

Verizon verizon.com/publicsafety – 4
Fan Duel fanduel.com – 2
Amazon amazon.com – 2
effectv effectv.com – 1
Xfinity FabricoftheNation.com – 1

Total: 10

Travel

UniversalOrlando.com – 1

Total: 1

Political/Special Interest

NBCNews.com/planyourvote – 1

Total: 1

Race brdcast times:      Comm. brdcast times:

7:00 PM – 7:03 PM – 3      7:03 PM – 7:06 PM – 3
7:06 PM – 7:08 PM – 2      7:08 PM – 7:10 PM – 2
7:10 PM – 7:24 PM – 14      7:24 PM – 7:27 PM – 3
7:27 PM – 7:35 PM – 8      7:35 PM – 7:37 PM – 2
7:37 PM – 7:46 PM – 9      7:46 PM – 7:48 PM – 2
7:48 PM – 7:54 PM – 6      7:54 PM – 7:57 PM – 3
7:57 PM – 8:06 PM – 9      8:06 PM – 8:08 PM – 2
8:08 PM – 8:10 PM – 2      8:10 PM – 8:12 PM – 2
8:12 PM – 8:22 PM – 10      8:22 PM – 8:25 PM – 3
8:25 PM – 8:47 PM – 22      8:47 PM – 8:49 PM – 2
8:49 PM – 8:55 PM – 6      8:55 PM – 8:57 PM – 2
8:57 PM – 8:59 PM – 2      8:59 PM – 9:01 PM – 2
9:01 PM – 9:19 PM – 18      9:19 PM – 9:21 PM – 2
9:21 PM – 9:48 PM – 27      9:48 PM – 9:51 PM – 3
9:51 PM – 10:04 PM – 13      10:04 PM – 10:07 PM – 3
10:07 PM – 10:22 PM – 15      10:22 PM – checkered flag

Total race brdcst time: 166      Total comm. brdcst time: 36

Number of companies featured during broadcast: 23
(South Point Hotel, Casino, & Spa; Monster Energy; Hunt Bros. Pizza; Coca-Cola; Busch Beer; Ford Performance; Toyota, TRD; Geico; Liberty Mutual; Tracker Off Road at Bass Pro Shops & Cabela’s ; Credit One Bank; Guaranteed Rate; PNC Bank; Xfinity; Verizon; NHL on NBC; Draft Kings Sports Book; The Preakness on NBC; eNASCAR iRacing Series; NBC Sports on Sirius/XM NASCAR Radio channel 90; NASCAR.com/Drive ; NASCAR.com/Mobile ; NASCAR.com/Shop; Upcoming Cup races)

Commercials during race broadcast: ‘Side-by-Side’ (‘Thank you!’ to all of the participating sponsors!)

8:31 PM – 8:32 PM
USAA; Verizon/PublicSafety

8:39 PM – 8:40 PM
Sonic; Applebee’s; Xfinity.com/nascar ; NASCAR.com/Shop

9:08 PM – 9:11 PM
Coca-Cola; Wendy’s; Verizon/PublicSafety; Geico; Applebee’s; Upcoming Cup race, Coca-Cola, Busch Beer, Geico, Xfinity

9:30 PM – 9:32 PM
GoodYear; TireRack.com; USAA; Applebee’s; Upcoming Xfinity race

9:38 PM – 9:41 PM
Xfinity.com/nascar ; Sonic; Applebee’s; Progressive; Upcoming Cup race, Coca-Cola, Busch Beer, Geico, Xfinity; Golf on NBC Sports; IndyCar on NBC Sports