"Personally, I blame Bob Reif and his marketing program," muttered an angry Honsowetz. "I mean, we've been at this for nearly five years now, we've run Indy four times, and we never had to worry about any of it reaching the public. Now Bob comes in with his fancy marketing scheme, and next thing we know the corporate Nissan boys are here asking lots of questions."

As reported by Curt Cavin in the Indianapolis Star, Ghosn was previously unaware of the company's involvement. Ghosn spent a number of years with Renault prior to accepting his current position, shortly after Renault acquired a controlling interest in Nissan. Ghosn is highly regarded as a ruthless cost-cutter, and has slashed the budgets of a number of projects in an effort to return Nissan to profitabilty.