Recently, the world of NASCAR lost an award-winning writer and novelist, Monte Dutton. Among his accomplishments, he was known for his coverage of racing, his engaging personality, and strumming a guitar. As this past weekend marked the Cup Series race at the famed Talladega Superspeedway in Lincoln, Alabama, I am reminded that he liked to declare that the correct pronunciation of ‘Talladega’ was not ending in ‘day-gah’, but ‘dee-gah’. In honor of Monte, I will share that information here, as well. I said it in my mind as Talladeega all day, in your memory, sir. Godspeed, Monte. And, as always, for the folks who enjoy knowing how many commercials they had to watch for each race, here is this week’s breakdown.
Race and Commercial Breakdown of the 2026 YellaWood 500
Start time to record race/commercial periods: 2:00 PM
End time to record race/commercial periods: 5:42 PM
Total minutes of complete race broadcast: 222
Minutes of race broadcast: 199
Minutes of traditional commercials: 23
Minutes of side-by-side commercials:36
Total number of commercials: 128
Total number of companies or entities advertised: 66
Total number of traditional commercials (not split-screen): 53
Total number of companies or entities advertised: 42
Total number of ‘Side-by-Side’ commercials during the broadcast (split-screen): 75
Total number of companies or entities advertised: 52
Number of times NBC utilized ‘Side-by-Side’ commercials during the broadcast: 12
— CawsNJaws —