I think the lack of crowd noise was that there were only 60,000 people there (according to the commentary in the pre-amble.... seems like nothing for a nation of 300 million and supposedly the most popular motorsport category. We get 60,000 to Bathurst from a nation of 25 million.
I watched some of the pre-amble waiting for the track to be dried out, was hoping for a win for Jeff Gordon, but fell asleep during the warm up laps (how many to they have FFS?) and woke up to see the M&M car in victory lane, and switched off. Havent bothered to watch a replay knowing that Gordon failed to win.
I have to say that to me with my limited interest and even less knowledge of 'the system', the whole Sprint Cup formula/format is totally fucked. They race in God knows how many races all year but then the whole season is settled on the result of one race only from what I can make out. With the only 4 challengers, and those being settled on the just the preceding race. Maybe I have it wrong, but...
Makes F1's attempt at keeping the title open until the end, with double points (in 2014) for the last round look good.