| I watched the whole race! (Or did I?) |
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Sunday mornings are special in my house. I get up early, wash my car, and eat a good breakfast. Then, I lock the doors, turn off the ringer on the phone, shut off my cell phone, crank up the TV and get ready to watch the "Big Show" unfold, wondering who will walk away victorious. This routine has become a normal Sunday for me since I stopped being a Crewman on the Nascar Modified Tour. I need my weekly fix of racing and everyone who knows me, understands that I am "unreachable" on Sundays. Now, if someone wants to come over and watch the race with me, that is ok. But, don't even think about talking about anything other than the race and leave your "rainbows" at home.
Between "Nascar this Morning", and "RPM2Day" I get my pre-game face on and I anxiously anticipate the start. First up, Pre-race. We interview drivers, we talk about rumors, we show highlights from last week. My heart gets rumbling. Then driver introductions are going on in the background. The National Anthem begins. The engines roar to life, my heart pounds, oh yeah.. here we go.. the cars are on the pace lap, starting line-up is shown.. and "Cut to Commercial". I watch the first commercial break and then as it is just about over, I realize that I forgot to lay out my refreshments near the couch. I bolt to the kitchen and get everything I need (It would be easier to just put the couch and TV in the kitchen). I sit back down and .. "Green flag.. Green flag" Alright.. the cars blast around and a little bumping goes on, my heart races and here comes lap 3. I stand up, remove my hat, and hold up 3 fingers in honor of "The Man". Lap 3 completes, and the racing is getting good and "Cut to Commercial". Commercial? Already?? But, they are 2 wide for the lead and 3rd place is right there.. you can't go to break yet.. WAIT!!!!!!!!! I decided this week to take a different approach to my race routine. Instead of stocking up on refreshments, I stocked up on paper and a pencil. I wanted to see just how often these commercial breaks occurred. So, I kept a list Now the actual laps may be off a bit here or there since NBC didn't always have a lap counter going on the screen, but you will get the point. Check out these numbers: We broke for caution on lap 7. Lap 7?? Wow, we made it a whole 3.5 minutes without a commercial. The commercial break included 4 spots and lasted 5 laps. We made it another 15 laps and then back to commercial. This break was longer, 6 laps, and included 2 NBC and Nascar.com commercials. By lap 100 we had already seen 5 breaks, 25 commercial spots, 8 of which were either Nascar.com,NBC or TNT promo's and only 48 laps of racing, 5 of which were under yellow. By lap 200 we were up to 10 breaks, 50 commercials, 13 of which were either Nascar.com,NBC or TNT promo's and only 127 laps of racing, 20 of which were under yellow. By the end of the race, here are the total stats: 18 breaks, 90 commercials, 23 of which were either Nascar.com,NBC or TNT promo's and only 206 laps of racing, 25 of which were under yellow. So we actually saw approximately 181 laps of a 312 lap race. That is a whopping 58%. We saw 25 of the 38 laps under yellow which is 66%. The race was 3 hours and 2 minutes long. This averages out to 6 breaks and 30 commercial spots per hour. I won't go on about why it is this way, I won't give advice on how to fix it. I just wanted to share some numbers with you guys and girls and let you draw your own conclusions. And, one final thing. HEY NBC/TNT..... Do you realize what a MAJOR disrespect it is to Dale Earnhardt and his family for you to have a "Lap 43 presented by STP"?? The whole silent lap 3 was brought about by Fox as a tribute. You graciously picked up on it, which I thank you for. But, now you have lap 43 sponsored by STP and that is purely about money and takes away every ounce of integrity that the original Lap 3 stood for. I can see it now, Lap 20 brought to you by Home Depot, lap 66 from K-mart. Its bad enough I only get to watch just over 50% of the race, don't make a mockery out of what Fox started as a legitimate tribute and don't make me have to watch commercials within the race. Thanks and keep reading, Rob |