Three Drivers Lead the Early Race for Sponsor Exposure in NASCAR

Through television coverage of the this season's first four NASCAR Sprint Cup Series points races, defending champion Tony Stewart leads in securing on-screen time for his sponsors, while Carl Edwards collected the most verbal mentions for his supporting brands and Jamie McMurray bested all drivers with $18.3 million of exposure value.

According to research conducted by Joyce Julius & Associates, Inc.— which has monitored every NASCAR race telecast over the last 28 seasons — McMurray's appearance on the Fox set during the Sunday rain-delay portion of last month's Daytona 500 led to quality exposure for several of his brands during some of the most valuable broadcast time of the season.

Joyce Julius calculates television exposure value by comparing the in-broadcast visual and verbal exposure to the estimated cost of a national commercial during the telecast and applying Joyce Julius Recognition Grading—which takes into account such factors as size and placement of the image on screen, as well as brand clutter and integration of the brand into the activity.

Stewart ranked number-one in camera time, as 29 of his sponsors enjoyed a combined two hours, 42 minutes, 42 seconds (2:42:42) of clear and in-focus exposure time during live and replayed coverage of the first four races. Brad Keselowski (2:28:34), Jimmie Johnson (2:27:53), Matt Kenseth (2:18:54) and Dale Earnhardt Jr. (2:08:23) rounded out the top five in accumulated TV time.

Meanwhile, Carl Edwards, who led all drivers in sponsor mentions last season—either by him, or by announcers referencing his team—is off to another fast start with a Series-high 37 verbal brand mentions.

In terms of delivering television exposure to the Series' participating automobile manufacturers, McMurray was the top exposure producer, posting $2.5 million on behalf of Chevrolet. Denny Hamlin and Kenseth garnered $2.3 million for Toyota and Ford, respectively, while Keselowski gathered $1.5 million on behalf of the Dodge nameplate.