Michigan may perhaps be the place where the majority of NASCAR fans finally separated Kurt Busch from his younger brother Kyle.
Busch, the pole-sitter, recorded a sizable amount of cheers as he was introduced to the crowd before the race.
This was surprising in that Busch had never received cheers in any of the previous Gluckometer ratings since 2004. But that's exactly what happened. Kurt got a positive welcome, while the typical negative reaction for a member of the Busch family was reserved solely for Kyle.
Another surprise was the reactions for Kevin Harvick and Joey Logano following their Pocono incident. It wasn't surprising that fans would cheer for them (everyone likes to pick a side), but it was expected that those cheers for at least one of the drivers would be mixed in with boos.
For example, a Harvick fan who didn't appreciate Logano would figure to boo for the young driver, and vice versa.
But that wasn't what happened: Both got cheers.
Here's how Busch, Logano and Harvick stacked up according to a handheld decibel meter:
|Driver||dB||Type of Noise||Comment/Explanation|
|1||Dale Earnhardt Jr.||86.4||Cheers||Most Popular Driver|
|2||Jimmie Johnson||85.4||Mix||Not all boos, for once|
|3||Kurt Busch||83.8||Cheers||Stunning turnaround|
|T4||Jeff Gordon||83.3||Mix||Reaction varies by track|
|T4||Mark Martin||83.3||Cheers||Defending race winner|
|6||Tony Stewart||81.7||Cheers||Popular driver|
|7||Kyle Busch||81.5||Boos||Least noise in weeks|
|8||Joey Logano||80.7||Cheers||Firesuit fallout|
|9||Kasey Kahne||80.5||Cheers||Popular driver|
|10||Kevin Harvick||79.3||Cheers||Firesuit fallout|