Gluckometer: Measuring NASCAR Fan Reactions During Driver Introductions

When Denny Hamlin was first introduced to the crowd before Saturday night’s NASCAR race at Bristol Motor Speedway, there wasn’t much more than a lukewarm reaction.

Hamlin asked the crowd for more noise, waving his hands to get them louder. Still, there wasn’t much of a response.

The Gluckometer is back with another appearance this week after a nearly two-month hiatus.

It’s been harder than usual to get accurate readings this season for a variety of reasons. Dover had Kenny Wallace announce the drivers, which didn’t generate the typical noise; some tracks are using more bass music than in years past, which messes with the decibel meter; and some venues don’t have the attendance they once did, which makes for crowd noise too low to measure.

The Gluckometer returns this week for the third update of the season – but the first-ever edition that includes Danica Patrick.

Since the Daytona 500 driver introductions were held in the rain and few people were in the stands at the time, I wasn’t able to get a good reading in Patrick’s other Sprint Cup Series start.

On a typical week, no one can come close to topping the noise for Dale Earnhardt Jr. or Kyle Busch during pre-race driver introductions.

But the combination of NASCAR royalty and a country music star nearly did just that on Sunday at Martinsville Speedway.

The boos for Kyle Busch were louder than the cheers for defending NASCAR champ Tony Stewart prior to Sunday’s Sprint Cup Series race at Phoenix.

Busch earned the most attention from the crowd, even though he hasn’t done anything lately to rile fans.