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IRL: Tony George saluted by prominent sports business magazine

28 October 1999

Posted By Terry Callahan
Motorsports Editor, The Auto Channel

INDIANAPOLIS- Tony George, Indianapolis Motor Speedway president and chief executive officer, was recognized as one of the top sports business executives in the United States under age 40 by Street & Smiths SportsBusiness Journal.

George was honored in the "Forty Under 40" feature story in the Oct. 11-17 edition of the magazine.

"Tony George can lay claim to a triumvirate that makes his facility the most hallowed speedway in the world," the magazine said. "Indianapolis Motor Speedway has the Indy 500, which annually draws the largest crowd of any single-day sporting event in the world. It has the Brickyard 400, which is the most-attended race on the wildly popular NASCAR Winston Cup circuit. And, beginning next year, it will have the only Formula One race in the United States, bringing the worlds most popular racing series stateside for the first time since 1991.

"George, 39, was born into the grandeur of the Indy 500. But he was instrumental in expanding Indys dance card in recent years, adding the Brickyard in 1994 and negotiating to bring F1 to the United States in September 2000."

George also founded the Indy Racing League, which started in 1996 and has helped to create Indy Racing opportunities for American short-track drivers and return open-wheel racing to its oval-track roots.

Among the other executives saluted in the feature were August Busch IV, vice president of marketing for Anheuser-Busch Companies; Brian Cashman, general manager of the New York Yankees; Jon Litner, senior vice president of programming for NBC Sports; Michael Jordan, former NBA superstar; and Lesa Kennedy, executive vice president of International Speedway Corporation.

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