With Tony George stepping down or being forced out as the head honcho of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the IndyCar Series, there's no predicting where the sport will go.

If it continues its recent showing – Roger Penske and Chip Ganassi drivers taking turns leading a parade of yawns – one possible direction is a left turn into obscurity. (Or would that be “further” obscurity?)

The sport's current tough times were accentuated last weekend, when Dario Franchitti apologized for a race with little passing at Richmond, Va.

With George out, IndyCar's direction is cloudy at best.

You can disagree with George's vision of what he wanted IndyCar racing to look like. Many disagreed vehemently. But you cannot deny George had a vision. He wanted to even the playing field, bring home-grown teams and drivers back into the fold, and take on NASCAR.

He came close to achieving all three. And his accomplishment were many, including attracting other forms of racing to the speedway and introducing safety precautions – such as the SAFER barrier – that helped lessen some of the danger in the sport.

But in the end, the level playing field still failed to satisfy as Penske and others found a way to spend for speed, homegrown drivers such as Tony Stewart and Sam Hornish bolted for NASCAR, and IndyCar became a niche sport.

The crown jewel, the Indianapolis 500, remains bright, with a few scratches. This year's race, won by Helio Castroneves, played to generally positive reviews. But that one race hasn't been enough to propel the series to new popularity or financial success. George has acknowledged in the past that the Indy Racing League has never made a profit.

With George gone and the sport controlled by a board that includes his three sisters, the future of the sport moves into a real phase of limbo. George felt it was prudent to allocate significant profits from the speedway to run the IndyCar Series. His sisters apparently did not agree.

George resigned Tuesday as chief executive officer of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the Indy Racing League and Hulman & Co. He remains a board member and director of the Vision Racing Team.

George will be replaced at the speedway by Jeff Belskus, who was formerly the chief financial officer of Hulman & Co.

Curt Brighton, the company's chief legal counsel, becomes president of Hulman & Co. As for the IndyCar Series, it will be run by presidents Brian Barnhart and Terry Angstadt, and they report to Belskus.

It would appear the other members of the board doubted Tony's financial decisions as the leader and wanted to change them. They were particularly hesitant to keep spending IMS money on the IndyCar Series and George's Vision team. George's stepson, Ed Carpenter, drives one Vision car. The board stopped approving funding for the second car driven by Ryan Hunter-Reay.

It's safe to assume spending will be tightened further and the IndyCar Series will be forced to sink or swim on its own financially. Eventually, the series could be downsized in terms of number of races and number of teams. If that happens, younger, popular drivers such as Danica Patrick, Marco Andretti and Graham Rahal will be tempted to bolt to NASCAR or Formula One.

George was vilified by many open-wheel sports fans for his decision to form the IRL in 1996 as a competitor to the Championship Auto Racing Teams. A split ensued, with the IRL retaining the Indy 500 and CART taking many of the top drivers, including the Penske team then featuring such names as Emerson Fittipaldi and Al Unser Jr.

The Indy 500 suffered, as attendance slipped and nearly half the field seemed like sub-par drivers. It became a yearly question over whether 33 cars could be found to fill the field.

Ultimately, George won the battle, with CART dying. But there was a price. When reunification of open-wheel racing became a reality last year, some saw it as too little too late. That said, a decent crowd turned out for the disappointing Richmond race, so a glimmer of potential for the sport remains.

As a board member and team owner, George will continue to have a voice in the sport's direction, but he won't have the same clout.

Perhaps the change in leadership is what the IndyCar Series needs – a new voice and a fresh direction. The series already has approved some down-force changes to the cars to try to stop the lack-of-passing trend on ovals.

Love him or hate him, Tony George was a confident leader and a visionary.

As he steps aside, it's hard to see what lies ahead.