MADISON, Ill. — Some believe he’s the man who will one day topple IndyCar’s titans. He’ll challenge team owners Roger Penske, Chip Ganassi and all the rest for Indianapolis 500 wins and championships.

It could happen, they say. And it could happen soon.

That’s a lot of pressure to put on anyone — let alone someone who only recently was legally allowed to drink a beer.

But those are the expectations that come with carrying a name synonymous with winning. With spending. With relentlessness. Those are the expectations that come with being a Steinbrenner.

Except, with his flowing mane of dark hair and measured remarks, George Michael Steinbrenner IV hardly elicits memories of his late, bombastic grandfather — who famously outlawed long hair on his baseball team.

While the former New York Yankees boss was famous for his bluster and showmanship, his grandson, the 21-year-old owner of Steinbrenner Racing, seems to have taken a much more modest approach to team management.

Poised and confident, yet soft-spoken, George Michael is the son of Hank Steinbrenner, part-owner and co-chairman of the New York Yankees.

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He sounds little like his grandfather, who once told his manager, Billy Martin, “The next time you drive me to the wall, I’ll throw you over it.”

That doesn’t mean, though, that the elder Steinbrenner’s trademark passion for winning isn’t apparent in his grandson. On the contrary, in his first year as an Indy Lights team owner, George Michael Steinbrenner IV and his first-year driver Colton Herta — son of IndyCar owner and former driver Bryan Herta — already have left their mark.

After two wins, six podiums and five poles, the 17-year-old Herta left Saturday night’s race at Gateway Motorsports Park third in the Lights championship. While he won’t win a title this year, it’s not hard to envision a future of Steinbrenner and Herta hoisting trophies.

In fact, that is precisely Steinbrenner’s intention.

Within the next year or two, Steinbrenner, a self-professed die-hard racing fan, hopes to graduate his Andretti-Steinbrenner program to IndyCar. And he plans to take Herta, a talent he compares to a young Josef Newgarden, with him.

“We’re still looking for that point where we can comfortably make the leap,” said Steinbrenner, who under the tutelage of the Andrettis and Bryan Herta, has been soaking in as much of the business side of racing as he can. “We need all the pieces to fit together. We need to make sure we’re secure financially, and I want to be extra comfortable before I make the leap. I want to make sure every single financial piece is where it should be.”

Many around the paddock are excited about the possibilities of what someone with the Steinbrenner name can do for IndyCar as it heads into an uncertain fiscal future. But many are even more excited and impressed by the way Steinbrenner has chosen to enter the American open-wheel racing world.

“What we need is, and what I’m excited about is, an owner like the young George Steinbrenner who’s come into sport in just the absolute right way,” said former IndyCar driver and NBC Sports Network analyst Townsend Bell.

“I really respect the approach of that family. They entered Indy Lights, identified a young American talent who’s exciting and has a ton of potential and they have invested in learning the sport through a partnership with Andretti. George Michael has invested in the feeder series to learn the mechanics of how to do it and how to be successful.”

“I look at someone like that, maybe not next year, but in the next few years, to step up and into the top level of the sport and go meet Ganassi and Penske with authority, with resources, with a winning tradition.”

When asked about those expectations, George Michael Steinbrenner IV smiles. He is happy to talk about a future of competing against the Penskes and Ganassis, but as for going toe-to-toe with them, well, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Let’s get to IndyCar first, then he can worry about the rest.

“I don’t like to make those kinds of predictions,” the young team owner said with a chuckle. “Every once in awhile I’ll let myself think about how great it could be in the future, but most of the time I like to keep it a step at a time. Where are we going to be next year? That’s where I’m focused.”

Ayello writes for the Indianapolis Star, part of the USA TODAY Network.