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has been ousted as CEO of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway
.
However, Ron Green, official spokesperson for IMS, said he would “neither
confirm nor deny” the report, and said the speedway will issue a statement
regarding the matter this afternoon.
Meanwhile, the reporter who published the
report this morning said he is sticking by his story.
A SpeedTV.com report posted on its Web site
said the board of directors removed George from his position during a meeting
last night. In an appearance outside the speedway today, George told local TV
reporters the story was a rumor.
“No one has asked me to leave,” he
said. “I do what I always do, and that is to try to run the company and
the business as we need to and see fit.”
George said there was a scheduled board
meeting yesterday, during which the board discussed the race, the annual report
and talked about organizational issues – topics he referred to as “fairly
typical stuff.” He said he was unaware of any meeting last night.
“Maybe something did happen, but I’m
not aware of it,” he told the local TV stations.
But Robin Miller, the long-time motorsports
reporter who wrote the SpeedTV piece, wasn’t swayed by George’s denial.
“My sources are impeccable,” Miller said this afternoon. “I stand by what I
wrote.”
Miller said
officials declined to respond to the story while he was working on it and after
it was published.
George has led the family-owned speedway for
the past 20 years. During that time, he started the Indy Racing League and
brought NASCAR, Formula One and Grand Prix motorcycles to the 100-year-old,
tradition-bound
track.
SpeedTV.com reported George was ousted as
CEO because his three sisters, all members of the board, were concerned about
the money he had spent to keep the IRL afloat and to make major changes to the
speedway.
“This place wakes up every morning and
eats money,” George told TV reporters. “We spend a lot of money
keeping it in the condition we do. Certainly the Indy Racing League has in the
past required a lot of capital to keep it going when there was two competing
series – and a lot of money was spent last year trying to unify. We got that
done and everybody’s hoping to catch a tail wind and then the economy’s in our
face. We’re just dealing with that.”
George, who is also CEO of the IRL and an
IndyCar team owner, said he learned of “the brouhaha” today while
spending time with his mother, Mari, also a board member.
This story will be updated.
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