Tony George (on 6/30) resigns CEO post of Indianapolis Motor Speedway, IRL

Interesting post, crimson.

The way I might phrase it is that open wheel racing failed to capitalize on the overall growth in the interest in auto racing, because of the IRL-Cart splintering.

In the 70s and even into the mid 80s, open wheel racing was the dominant sibling, and really, that ultimately came down to one race--the Indy 500. People really weren't paying much attention to the rest of the Indy schedule. My guess is if you go back to the SI vault and search for auto racing stories (and for sure, covers) from back then, most will revolve around the 500.

At that time, NASCAR was the lesser known brand nationwide, primarily a regional attraction in the south.

But, somewhere around the mid 90s, the overall interest in American auto racing took off in a monster way. People beyond the motorheads became casual and more than casual fans and viewers of the sport. NASCAR developed the stars and personalities that could fuel that growth: Earnhardt and Gordon, Bill Elliott, followed more recently by Stewart and Johnson.

The open wheel circuit failed to take advantage in the same way, due in large part to the focus being split between two series and not being able to develop and market a set of names/stars in the same way NASCAR did.

 

I can agree with that. But a lot of that blame has to be hung on Tony George. He did insist on more U.S. drivers, which I agreed with and wanted more races on ovals and less on road courses to go along with American tastes (something I despise). He also wanted a more inexpensive series that was not a clone of Formula One, which he felt that CART had become. He also didn't want open-wheel racing in the U.S. to be dominated by a few wealthy teams, which unfortunately is the case now.

The Texas "race" in 2001 was the turning point that killed CART when they cancelled the race due to the excessive g-forces generated by the cars, which led to blurred vision and other problems for the drivers. CART cancelled it, go sued and even though it was the right decision, they really took a serious public relations hit. That and George still had the trump card, the Indy 500. When Chip Ganassi took his cars to Indy, that was a serious nail in CART's credibility. That and losing two engine manufacturers didn't help either.

I just think that all of this led to a couple of decades wandering in the wilderness for open-wheel racing in the U.S. Which is probably why we have no one racing in F1 (not that anyone here really cares about that anyhow).

 

Tony is selling his house in Indy and now this tidbit from Miller

http://auto-racing.speedtv.com/article/indycar-millers-mailbag-107//P2/

RM: We've been hearing for months how Tony lost millions to Bernie Madoff and he's leveraged to the hilt but nobody knows whether he's in financial trouble except his family and probably Jeff Belskus. Obviously, not controlling the checkbook is impacting his racing team and, unless John Menard steps up, Vision Racing could be gone or maybe just run the ovals in 2010. But hopefully Menard's will keep him on the trac

 

Some good points made here about some of the reasons for open-wheel's decline. I'll add a couple of others:
1. A number of the familiar stars retired within a few years of each other in the early 1990s. Mears, Foyt, Mario, Big Al, etc. That left a void of big-name, mostly American drivers. Compounding the problem, when the split started the next generation of stars like Little Al and Michael Andretti no longer raced at Indy. Just like it would be hard for NASCAR to hold an audience for the Daytona 500 if most of the Cup drivers left and the unknown Busch/Nationwide guys took over the spots, so it was for Indy to keep an audience with guys like Jack Miller and Eliseo Salazar in the show. Especially that Salazar, think it was '97 or so it looked like CART sent him to try to hit everyone and everything.
2. When TG invited NASCAR to Indy, that made the rising sanctioning body legitimate. It's one thing to add races in places like New Hampshire or Fontana, but to be invited to THE American race track is on another level entirely. Odds are NASCAR's growth would have been pretty rapid in the 1990s without Indy, but IMO there's no question adding Indy was a HUGE PR boost for NASCAR, even if the Brickyard 400s are usually pretty crappy races.

 

Any chance he also put some IMS money in Madoff's hands, too, and this is what this is partly about? Or would I really be reaching there?

 

That's what I'd think, but I didn't know how far he could reach into the IMS money tin without getting a thwap from someone in the family.

 

It's not like Tony George has never had, um, personal problems before. As I recall, the divorce from his first wife included a lot of court filings about their copious cocaine use.

 

TONY GEORGE RESIGNS BOARD MEMBERSHIPS
OF INDIANAPOLIS MOTOR SPEEDWAY, HULMAN & COMPANY

INDIANAPOLIS, Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2010 – The Board of Directors of Hulman & Company and affiliated companies, including the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, has received the resignation of Anton H. “Tony” George from the board of directors effective immediately, according to Mari Hulman George, chairman.

“As members of his family, we are sorry to see Tony leave,” said Mrs. George. “We are grateful for his service to our company as a board member and of course for formerly serving as CEO and president of our companies. I speak for our whole family in wishing him well.

“All of us had hoped that Tony would continue to serve on the board, and we made that clear to him. We are disappointed with his decision to step down despite our wishes.”

His resignation removes George from any remaining role in Hulman & Company, Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Indy Racing League, IMS Productions and other affiliated companies. His term as CEO of the family companies ended June 30, 2009. He continues to be involved in racing through his ownership of Vision Racing, a competitor in the IZOD IndyCar Series of the Indy Racing League.

The board vacancy will be addressed at a later date. In addition to Mari Hulman George, board members include Nancy George, Josie George, Kathi George-Conforti and Jack Snyder.

Mari Hulman George said she is very pleased with the direction of the company and the progress that has been made during the last six months.

“Our company is healthy and is weathering the economic recession well,” she said. “Jeff Belskus, president and CEO of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and Curt Brighton, president and CEO of Hulman & Company, are both doing excellent jobs in guiding our companies through this difficult time. Many hard decisions have been made, and now our companies are well positioned for the future.”

 

Maybe Tony will start a competing Indy-car series.