There’s been a lot said and written since last week’s announcment of Tony Stewart’s departure from Joe Gibbs Racing at the end of the season to take on part ownership of the Haas Racing team. The main question seems to be why would he go from a team that has given him two NASCAR championships, to one that has only a single top 10 finish in the last five years?

Several answers have been discussed:

(1) He wanted to get back to being a Chevy driver – A good point. He always seemed like a reluctant spokesperson for Toyota after JGR made the switch this year. In post-race interviews he rarely mentioned the make of his car, and the TV commercials he did often featured a Chevy. – His dirt-track teams still raced Chevys. Chevy bought him his IndyCar and NASCAR titles.- He’s a Chevy guy.

(2) Stewart-Haas will be a Hendrick’s satellite team which means he’ll be a quasi team-mate with his good buddy, and frequent drafting partner, Dale Earnhardt Jr. – Also true.

(3) It was a good business move. – Also true if we are to believe that Stewart was basically given 50% ownership of Haas without having to spend a single $ of his own money.

(4) He’s getting older and wants to seque into NASCAR team ownership. – Again I think this is one of the factors,  and maybe the main consideration. But I believe that its only a partial answer. There’s something else to consider..

The Indy 500.

Indiana native Stewart has never made a secret of the fact that his biggest ambition was to race in, and win, the Indy 500. Depite all his other achievements it’s something he’s never managed to pull off.

So why not try and win it as an owner? If I things pan out the way I think they will, I’d guess that the 2012 Indy 500 will feature an Stewart-Haas entry (maybe with a Chevy engine). In fact I think he’ll go even further.

Stewart is above all things a racer. He will race anything, anywhere. He is also passionate and knowledgable about the sport on many different levels. I don’t beieve that Tony Stewart wants to stay in NASCAR and emulate Richard Petty and Dale Eranhardt (or even Jeff Gordon) as a multiple champion.

I believe he wants to be a Chip Gannasi, or a Roger Penske. A winning owner in NASCAR, IndyCar, maybe Sports Cars as well, plus Sprint cars; along with being a track owner and promoter.

Another point to consider is that Haas may not be one of the most sucessful teams at the moment, but it is one of the mpst technolgically advanced. It’s facilities (like its full scale wind tunnel) are used by many teams from other series (including F1 teams). What better way to make connections and build releationships among leading teams and engineering talent around which to build a first class race organization?

I think this “shock” move is the first step in a well calculated and thought out strategy to become the first driver to win IndyCar and NASCAR championships as both a driver – and owner.

During the coverage of last week’s F1 British Grand Prix at Silverstone there seemed to be a genuine sense of shock and surprise to the announcement that the nearby Donington Park circuit (it’s 85 miles away) had brokered a deal to host the British Grand Prix for 10 years starting in 2010.

This should have come as a surprise to no-one for several reasons.

(1) History
While there seemed to be an undercurrent among commentators that Silverstone was the traditional home of the British GP and should remain so, it doesn’t stand up to examination from a historical perspective.

Yes, the first round of the modern F1 World Championship was held at Silverstone, but since then the British round has also been held at Brands Hatch and Aintree. When I first started attending GPs the feeling was that Brands was the event’s “rightful” home and many people objected to it having alternative dates with the “flat boring airfield circuit in the midlands.” (i.e. Silverstone)

In the years immediately before the second world war and the subsequent post war birth of modern F1, Britain’s de-facto Grand Prix circuit was – Donington Park.

(2) Ambition
Ever since Donington Park was rebuilt and reopened in 1977, and especially after the Melbourne Loop was added in 1985 to extend the track, the owners of the circuit made no secret that their ultimate ambition was to have Grand Prix racing return to Donington. They succeeded in 1993 when the European GP was held at the circuit (and was a classic race still recalled today by anyone who witnessed it).

Since then at various times many of the F1 teams have done development work or testing there. More recently Minardi used Donington to host their “fan appreciation” events running both race cars and the amazing two-seater F1 cars at the track.

The establishment and continued growth of the Donington Grand Prix Collection of classic F1 cars should have also been an obvious signpost of the circuit’s ambitions. Shouldn’t the worlds best collection of F1 race cars be held at a circuit that hosts F1 racing?

(3) Politics
It’s a well established fact that F1 show runner Bernie Ecclestone and the British Racing Drivers Club, who own Silverstone, have never really seen eye-to-eye. Every year Ecclestone rattles the saber about taking the British GP off the calendar unless Silverstone does this-or-that. And every year the GP is “saved.” It only takes a few seconds thought that there is no-way that the British GP would be taken off the calendar under the current series make-up. Most of the teams are based in the UK, that’s where most of the engineering expertise comes from. On the technical level it’s a small industry and its a British centric one. I don’t believe the threat was ever that the British GP was in danger, but that Silverstone’s “right” to hold it was. The obvious alternative, move it to a new location. The mutterings about holding a street race in London were totally impractical – but when you have an alternative in the same general area, that already has an existing infrastructure, experience of holding international events and is willing to make large investments – then it seems an obvious move.

From a personal perspective as someone who has been to major events at both circuits (and even been lucky enough to do a few laps of both of them), I always preferred Donington – so I for one was delighted to hear the announcement last week and look forward to the 2010 British Grand Prix from Donington Park.

At the half-way point of the season 135 different drivers from Formula One, Indycar, NASCAR, NHRA drag racing, and the World Rally Championship have qualified to be included in The Speed Blog driver rankings.

World Rally driver Mikko Hirvonen maintains the top spot for another month, but the gap to second placed Indycar racer Scott Dixon is closing fast.

Here’s the Top 10 standings at the end of June.

1. Mikko Hirvonen (WRC)
2. Scott Dixon (IRL)
3. Sebastian Loeb (WRC)
4. Helio Castroneves (IRL)
5. Robert Kubica (F1)
6. Fellipe Massa (F1)
7. Dan Wheldon (IRL)
8. Kimi Raikkonen (F1)
9. Tony Schumacher (NHRA)
10. Chris Atkinson (WRC)

Kyle Busch is the top ranked NASCAR driver at #13 on the list.