Watching yesterday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup race from Watkins Glen prompted me to post the following quick note on my Twitter feed.

Can’t believe the lack of medical crews at the site of the 9 car pile up in today’s NASCAR race. NASCAR needs to learn from open wheel.

Thinking about it over night I thought perhaps I had over reacted  until I watched the following video again.

Watch Bobby Labonte climb out of the #43. He is obviously injured and in pain. Why was he allowed to groggily find his own way down pit lane? He even passed two NASCAR officials who let him keep going. What if he’d had internal injuries?

In fact my by my  rough reckoning it was almost 90 seconds after the impact that track workers arrived with fire extinquishers.  And this wasn’t some distant part of the circuit between two marshal posts - it was right at pit-in.

I’ve seen better marshalling and faster response times at club level road racing.

If this had happened in Formula One there would have been an international outcry in the media.  Yet I haven’t heard anyone on TV (Speed Report, Wind Tunnel etc.) or online mention it.

I’m I the only one who seems to think there’s an issue here?

In the last month seven more drivers qualified to be included in the overall SPEED BLOG RANKINGS which rate drivers from NASCAR, Formula One, IndyCar, NHRA Drag Racing and World Rally against each other’s relative performances.

World Rally ace Mikko Hirvonen stays on the top again this month, while for the first time this year a NASCAR driver, Kyle Busch, breaks into the Top 10.

The Top 10 at the end of July are:

1. Mikko Hirvonen (Rally)
2. Sebastian Loeb (Rally)
3. Scott Dixon (IndyCar)
4. Helio Castroneves (IndyCar)
5. Tony Schumacher (NHRA)
6. Lewis Hamilton (F1)
7. Feliepe Massa (F1)
8. Kimi Raikkonnen (F1)
9. Robert Kubica (F1)
10. Kyle Busch (NASCAR)

As part of another writing project I’ve recently been rewatching the Disney-Pixar classic animated movie CARS. Watching the accompanying 16 minute documentary on the DVD abut the inspiration for, and making of, the movie, I was struck by one sentence.

The movie makers remarked that the essence of racing on the screen (be it the large cinema one, or the smaller TV one), is best projected by having not only great camera shots, but a knowledgeable and enthusiastic commentary team with great personalities. For this reason they enrolled FOX TV NASCAR commentator and ex-driver Darrell Waltrip to call their animated race sequences. Whatever you say or think about DW, no-one can argue that he simply loves racing and is one of the most enthusiastic broadcasters there is.

The more I thought about what the movie makers had said, the more I had to agree.

For me growing up Formula One was defined by what consider to be the best commentary team the sport has ever known, Murray Walker and James Hunt. Now I watch F1 coverage here in the US, I get as much entertainment from the banter, wit and sheer fun of Bob Varsha, David Hobbs and Steve Matchett.

What of NASCAR? Looking back I realized that I watch far more races in the half of the season when FOX is covering the races. DW, Jeff Hammond, Mike Joy and crew make the whole experience a fun four hour show – without them the races drag.

Then there’s IndyCar. A series I watch purely for the racing, in spite of the commentary team. Now that CART and IRL are back as one series, the racing is better and the series is poised to return to the glory days of American open wheel racing. But a keystone of that is a network that understands the sport (i.e. doesn’t move it around from channel to channel, often seemingly on a whim), knows how to build entertaining programming around it and has an enthusiastic, knowledgeable commentary team with personality. Would it be too much to suggest that ABC bring back Paul Page from covering NHRA drag racing to where he belongs, with IndyCars, and have Jerry Punch and a opinionated ex-driver (Dario Franchitti, Bryan Herta?) in the box alongside? – Seems like sense to me.

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.

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.