IRL CEO Tony George Resigns

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DanicaFan

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Tony George, CEO of the Indy Racing League has resigned from his duties. Effective tomorrow, a new executive team will be in place.

IMS executives W. Curtis Brighton and Jeffrey G. Belskus will head the Hulman-George companies effective July 1.

Tony will still remain on the Board of Directors and assist the IRL as needed. Tony will concentrate more on his team, Vision Racing.

The other offices and executives of the Indy Racing League are..

Joie Chitwood is president and chief operating officer (COO) of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, LLC. Terry Angstadt is president of the commercial division of the Indy Racing League. Brian Barnhart is president of the competition division of the Indy Racing League. Charlie Morgan is president and COO of IMS Productions. Gary Morris is president and COO of Clabber Girl.
 
Max Mosely steps down from F1, now Tony jumps out of IMS and IRL....

it's only coincidence, right?
 
YES!!!!

The two biggest assholes in motorsports step down in the same month!

Hopefully it's not too late to save IRL, but I think it might be.
 
Well, about a month ago there were rumors of him being asked to step down by the board but it wasnt true, he remained the CEO. IMS denied that rumor. However, there was a lengthy board meeting prior to this rumor being started.
It was said that the board of directors & family did not like the direction that Tony George was taking for the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. They felt he was spending money friviously and that the organization was losing money. They felt changes were needed on how the organization was ran.

Other than Tony being ousted at that time, the rest of the story that leaked was true. I feel that this latest decision was one of those situations where he was asked to resign or be removed from the position. Im sure the IRL will get through this just fine. With his primary focus being his team, Vision Racing, the other executives will focus on the IRL and the IMS. I think it actually may help all that is involved.
 
I wouldnt mind humpy taking over IRL....

yes, brian next would be great
 
If Brian "left" it would be the answer to a lot of NASCAR fans prayers! It sounded more or less that Tony was told to step down and it's a saving face move to say he resigned.
 
Magnethead said:
Max Mosely steps down from F1, now Tony jumps out of IMS and IRL....

it's only coincidence, right?
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I believe T.G.'s still running IRL. It's just The BrickYard which he's been booted out of the management of? To my knowledge the only connection the Hulman Family has to the IRL is Tony himself?

I agree with several of you. Right now I think the Indy 500, AND the IRL could stand a good shot of Humpy's promotion skills.
 
SlowNeasy said:
briannnnnn
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Looks like I'm in the minority here, but I don't mind Brian France. At least, not as much as Mosley or George.

I haven't been a big fan of all the choices he'd made, but I do think he's made some good choices. The Chase for example, IMHO is one of the best things to happen to the sport since the 1979 Daytona 500. It's re-energizes the series, and made NASCAR second only to the NFL. Granted, it's not perfect, but it helps more then it hurts.

Brian isn't a saint, though. I wasn't a big fan of how he handled the CoT. Not that I have an issue with the CoT, but I didn't like the fact teams weren't given much input, or allowed to adjust it.

But at least France hasn't driven NASCAR into the ground like Mosley did to F1 and George did to IRL. Sure, ratings are down from the all-time highs a couple years ago, but they're still much better then they were 10 or 15 years ago.

If Brian left NASCAR, it might make the old school fans happy, but they'd be the only ones left watching. Then the sport would be right back to the viewership it was at 20 years ago. France might not make the best choices, but at least he does make choices.

Mosley and George stepping down can only help their respective sports because they can't do much worse. NASCAR on the other hand has a lot to lose if Brian steps down.
 
foehammer111 said:
But at least France hasn't driven NASCAR into the ground like Mosley did to F1 and George did to IRL.
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Give him time!

These things take a few years to happen.

It's more than TV ratings. Ticket sales are down and have been down for sometime now, not just because of the recession.

I said it before and will say it again: Nascar reached its peak several years ago. Now it is just a matter of sapping all the money out of it that you can until the sport slides down to where it was 20 years ago.

But all is not lost if some changes can be made. But I don't see that happening.
 
Guido said:
Give him time!
These things take a few years to happen.
It's more than TV ratings. Ticket sales are down and have been down for sometime now, not just because of the recession.
I said it before and will say it again: Nascar reached its peak several years ago. Now it is just a matter of sapping all the money out of it that you can until the sport slides down to where it was 20 years ago.
But all is not lost if some changes can be made. But I don't see that happening.
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I agree with you Guido. It is a simply a matter of time as the wine and cheese crowd along with those who jump to the latest and "in thing to do is to go to a NASCAR race" lose interest. Maybe not entirely but enough to take the sport back to to a time period before those mentioned made NASCAR the hot ticket item. Not all will leave as many are surely hooked but enough will leave to continue to reduce ticket sales and television ratings.
 
If Brian "left" it would be the answer to a lot of NASCAR fans prayers! It sounded more or less that Tony was told to step down and it's a saving face move to say he resigned.
 
Whizzer said:
I agree with you Guido. It is a simply a matter of time as the wine and cheese crowd along with those who jump to the latest and "in thing to do is to go to a NASCAR race" lose interest. Maybe not entirely but enough to take the sport back to to a time period before those mentioned made NASCAR the hot ticket item. Not all will leave as many are surely hooked but enough will leave to continue to reduce ticket sales and television ratings.
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I couldn't agree more, Whizzer.

The group that NA__AR has pandered to, the ones who know little about cars and even less about actual racing is about as stable, fan base-wise, as jello./

The problem is that while they courted this demographic, NA__AR has either lost a lot of us, or have caused us to become so disenchanted that it'll take a lot of effort to get us fully back. Until NA__AR makes some really drastic changes (which I doubt if they can or will) I don't know if I ever want to be the rabid fan I once was.
 
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