UPDATE: George shift in works for weeks-WEB ONLY

This afternoon’s announcement that Tony George no longer would be president and CEO of Indianapolis Motor Speedway and other companies owned by the Hulman-George family had been anticipated for more than a month.

On May 27 – three days after this year’s Indianapolis 500 – SpeedTV correspondent Robin Miller reported that the board had voted George out as chief of IMS. George emerged from Speedway headquarters later that day to deny the news.

George complained that the furor started with an IBJ article earlier in May that quoted him as saying the Indy Racing League must be profitable by 2013 or it would no longer exist. George made the comment at a December motorsports forum in New York, but the remark hadn’t been widely reported.

At an impromptu press conference in front of IMS headquarters at 16th Street and Georgetown Road, George scoffed at Miller’s report, pointing out that the journalist wasn’t at the board meeting.

George has been under increasing pressure, in part because the down economy hurt attendance at this year’s Indianapolis 500, and ticket sales for the Brickyard 400 on July 26 also have been disappointing. IMS officials in December told IBJ that weak ticket sales were a key factor in staff layoffs at the IMS in late 2008.

George will remain on the board of Hulman & Co. and focus on making the IRL profitable.

A management team comprised of veteran IMS executives W. Curtis Brighton and Jeffrey G. Belskus will head the Hulman-George companies effective July 1.

Brighton, currently executive vice president and chief legal counsel, will become president and CEO of Hulman & Co. Belskus, currently executive vice president and chief financial officer for the companies, will become president and CEO of Indianapolis Motor Speedway Corp.

They will replace George as president and CEO of the Hulman-George companies. Those include Clabber Girl and IMS Productions, in addition to IMS.

“Our board had asked Tony to structure our executive staff to create efficiencies in our business structure and to concentrate his leadership efforts in the Indy Racing League,” Mari Hulman George, IMS chairwoman, said in a statement.

“He has decided that with the recent unification of open-wheel racing and the experienced management team IMS has cultivated over the years, now would be the time for him to concentrate on his team ownership of Vision Racing with his family and other personal business interests he and his family share.

“Tony will remain on the board of directors of all of our companies, and he will continue to work with the entire board to advance the interests of all of companies.

“Our family and the entire racing community are grateful to Tony for the leadership and direction he has provided since 1990,” she said. “We are pleased that he will continue to be an important part of the Indy Racing League as a team owner and as a member of our board of directors, and we wish him every success.”

George’s position change likely means that money will no longer be allowed to be funneled from the IMS to support the money-losing IRL. George has admitted on a number of occasions the IRL has never made a profit since its founding in 1996.

While the IRL has signed several key new sponsors, attendance has been static this year and TV ratings have languished in the first year of a new deal with cable channel Versus.

Several key positions within the Hulman-George empire will remain unchanged, including Joie Chitwood as president and chief operating officer of the IMS; Terry Angstadt president of the commercial division of the IRL; Brian Barnhart, president of the IRL’s competition division; Charlie Morgan, president and chief operating officer of IMS Productions; and Gary Morris will remain president and chief operating officer of Clabber Girl.

For more, to go IBJ’s motorsports blog, The Score.