ESPN has sold out all advertising inventory for its first “NASCAR NonStop” commercial breaks during the Sprint Cup Geico 400 this Sunday from Chicagoland Speedway. “NASCAR NonStop” is a new split-screen commercial format ESPN developed to deliver continuous racing coverage to viewers. It will be used during the second half of races. The network introduced the format during its upfront presentation in the spring, and it has been “well received” by advertisers, said ESPN President of Customer Marketing & Sales Ed Erhardt. He said, “The big driver for why we’ve gotten good response to it is there have been many versions of some kind of this but we came to advertisers and said, ‘Your advertising will be the dominant image on the screen.’” Sprint is the presenting sponsor of “NASCAR NonStop” during Sunday's race. Other advertisers include Nationwide, Bank of America, Gillette, Lowe’s and AT&T. Erhardt said ESPN’s research division is monitoring how viewership responds to the “NonStop” format and will share that information with NASCAR and advertisers. He added, “We’re hopeful we’ll see a lift in viewership.”
