Tony George is king - and today everybody knows it.

That's because in Indiana, it's Race Day, plain and simple. The world is watching George's race, the Indianapolis 500, and his track, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

The famed 2.5-mile oval represents wealth, incredible wealth. That wealth is the vision of George's great-great-great-uncle, Francis Hulman, according to the Hulman & Co. history.

No, Francis Hulman did not hear the deafening roar of the Oldsmobiles and the Nissans that speed through George's kingdom at more than 200 miles per hour. He did not smell the exhaust of the motor cars that seek America's ultimate racing crown.

He smelled money.

Come to America, and we will make money, the dry-goods merchant wrote in a letter to his half-brother back in Germany before the Civil War. By the turn of the century, that half-brother, Herman Hulman, built the foundation of the kingdom his great-great-grandson Tony George now rules.

Since the time of Herman Hulman, the Hulman family has dominated Terre Haute. This city, 75 miles west of George's track, is where the family built the wealth; it's where five generations of Hulmans have crafted an empire that started with dry goods and first attracted national attention with Clabber Girl Baking Powder.

In this community of 60,200 along the Wabash River, the Hulmans' wealth is sometimes a blessing and sometimes a curse.

The family has given of its wealth to Terre Haute; perhaps the most visible philanthropist among the Hulmans was George's grandfather, Tony Hulman, the man most city residents still associate with the dynasty and the man who bought George's speedway in 1945.

The wealth has kept growing and growing to the point where it controls an important portion of the city's land and commerce, including the failed symbol of downtown revitalization, the Terre Haute House hotel, and the biggest financial institution, Terre Haute First National Bank.

It is the family's wealth that is the power -- power Tony George wielded with the certainty of a king in his recent battle with many of auto racing's most famous owners and drivers. The speedway is his track, the wealth let him say, he makes the rules; if you don't like them, race elsewhere.

He makes it clear, too, that he regards the speedway as the center of his family's empire. His vision for the future is more motor sports, and who is to say that's not the right vision? Like his great-great-great-uncle Francis, he is not concerned with the past. Nor is he particularly concerned about Terre Haute or his family's interests here; he pays others to deal with that.

George cares about racing; the otherwise shy 37-year-old can barely contain his confidence on that subject. He can explain the business of the Brickyard, his upstart Indy Racing League and the function of a crankshaft.

He can tell you where he is and where he wants to go, but he can't tell you how he got to where he is today. He shrugs his shoulders at questions about his great-great-grandfather, Herman. He has the same reaction to questions about Francis, who at the urging of a long-forgotten partner became the first Hulman to come to Indiana and to Terre Haute.

Although he admits he should probably learn more about his family's history, George is looking forward to building his own empire, a motor sports empire.

But if it wasn't for that partner and for Francis' untimely death more than a century ago, Tony George probably wouldn't be king today.