I just rolled across this news in my Facebook newsfeed this morning.
For those who don’t know, the Hulman family bought and refurbished the track after years of neglect during WW2.
In 1994, Penske and his cohorts at Ilmor engineering exploited engine rules that were specific to the Indy 500 (longer story about CART being the actual racing series and the speedway always did things a little differently). The bug had already been planted in IMS then president Tony George to start his own series. The domination of the Penske pushrod Mercedes that year was the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back, CART was given the boot and Tony George, with IMS money, started the Indy Racing League. 12 years of a damaging American open wheel civil war later, CART/ChampCar went bankrupt and merged back into IndyCar (formerly IRL).
Now, the guy who ticked Tony George off in the first place is going to own the Speedway and the whole series.
Did NOT see that coming, but knowing Roger, he generally doesn’t half ass anything. It should be in good hands, just really unexpected and even slightly ironic news.
At 11 AM EST, a livestream press conference will be found here.