Tony George reportedly seeking to take over IndyCar

One day after CEO Randy Bernard officially released the IZOD IndyCar Series' 2013 schedule on - of all places - the Speed TV cable show Wind Tunnel, the publication Sports Business Journal reported that Bernard is walking on very shaky ground because a group led by Tony George is trying to purchase the series.

The future of the series, and Bernard's tenure as president and CEO, rests - according to the Journal - with Mari Hulman George, who is majority owner of shares and chairman of Hulman & Co. and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway as well as being Tony George's mother.

Because Tony George has surrounded himself with the heavyweights of the Indy car world - Chip Ganassi, Roger Penske and Michael Andretti are reportedly on board - it's a pretty safe bet that his proposal will at least receive serious consideration.

Tony George, you will recall, is the fellow who broke away from CART in the mid-1990s and triggered the Indy car civil war by creating the Indy Racing League.

When CART went bankrupt in 2003, George attempted to purchase the assets in order to kill it but an Indiana judge sided with race team owners Kevin Kalkhoven, Paul Gentilozzi and Gerald Forsythe, who then formed the Champ Car World Series.

In 2008, when Kalhoven discovered others in the Champ Car paddock were quietly talking to George, he made peace with the IRL owner and a merger was eventually negotiated.

But the war had cost both sides millions and when the dust had settled, all was not well with the George family - notably Tony George's three sisters, who were resentful that their brother, in his role as president and CEO, had spent serious family money to fight the war without consulting them.

In a palace coup shortly after the 2009 Indianapolis 500, Tony George was stripped of his title and responsbilities as chairman and CEO of Hulman & Co. and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

A new president and CEO of the Speedway was hired and Bernard was convinced by one of the George sisters in 2010 to leave the professional rodeo series he was running to take over the newly named IndyCar Series.

There have been some successes since but also plenty of mistakes and Indy car insiders have been aware for some time that Tony George was plotting a comeback.  

According to Sports Business Journal, a group led by George that includes Penske, Ganassi, Andretti and one or two other influential owners (including Kevin Kalkhoven) has made a presentation to the board of Hulman & Co. and the Indianapolis Speedway to purchase control of the race series and to run it.

If true, Randy Bernard will be out of a job.

Here's another thing that I suggest will come true. Never again will the following year's Indy car schedule be formally issued to the world on a cable TV program at 9 o'clock on a Sunday night.

If you're ever looking for a definition of bush league, ladies and gentlemen, that was it.

For complete details of the Sports Business Journal story, please click here.

Comments

[Adam]

I like the idea Tony George taking over.
Indycar must fend off NASCAR. NASCAR already controls everything else.
George, Penske, Ganassi have money, Bernard has nothing and is vulnerable.
This story just keeps on giving news all the time!

[Mike]

Adam. Seriously. Hasn't Tony George done enough damage to open wheel racing? And you want him back???

[Adam]

I am serious. George has not done the damage alone by himself. He was picked on by the public because it likes simplicity.
The trend in racing is that it, as a profitable business, is not sustainable, and failing. It goes back to its roots.
Therefore deep-pocketed benefactors are most welcome. Indycars needs not a CEO but a philantropist.
George is one such person.

[random72]

It's amazing to me that just about any negative story about IndyCar- especially one as threadbare as this one, where even George essentially tells the writer the premise of his story is false- is swallowed whole by others in the media (and many so-called fans of the sport, sadly) and repeated over and over as gospel. And some wonder why the sport has a hard time attracting new promoters, sponsors and a larger television audience. Kinda hard to grow the sport when so many are constantly throwing dirt on it in the most careless fashion isn't it? Did anyone bother to consider that this story might have been leaked by Randy Bernard's enemies in order to steal his thunder from the 2013 schedule announcement? Of course not- the timing is merely coincidental to these people. Can't let a reasonable explanation get in the way of more negativity, now can we? Perish the thought.