Three days after its bombshell announcement that Randy Bernard had left his post as CEO of IndyCar, there remained no further news from Hulman & Company, owners of IndyCar, regarding the future of the organization. H&C President and CEO Jeff Belskus, who also holds similar posts with the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and was named interim CEO of IndyCar Sunday night, has made no further statements beyond continuing to maintain that IndyCar is not for sale, despite ongoing speculation to the contrary in the media.
The Associated Press published a report claiming to have seen a copy of Tony George's proposal for a new ownership group to purchase IndyCar from Hulman & Company (click here to read the AP report), which it says expired Oct. 15 – four days before George resigned from the Hulman & Company board, citing the wish to avoid appearances of a conflict of interest.
According to the AP, George did not wish to run the operation but would merely be a member of a new operating board which included Just Marketing International founder and CEO Zak Brown, who would have served as the CEO and commissioner of IndyCar, former IndyCar commercial division president Terry Angstadt and two others, along with George himself. It claimed no current IndyCar team owners were involved in the proposal, as had previously been hotly rumored.
Brown, however, has expressed puzzlement about Bernard's abrupt departure.
"It all appears a bit strange and kneejerk to me," Brown told the AP. "I don't understand why Jeff Belskus hasn't communicated a longer-term plan. Unless there isn't one, which as CEO, I hope he has. The industry needs to know the plan."