After three seasons as vice president and general manager of Gateway International Raceway, Lenny Batycki has “mutually parted ways” with Dover Motorsports Inc.

Batycki, 46, learned the news on Thursday when Dover Motorsports chief executive officer Denis McGlynn and executive vice president Mike Tatoian met face-to-face with Batycki at the Madison track.

“I didn’t fit Dover’s management style and we parted ways,” Batycki said by phone Thursday night. “I didn’t conform. We weren’t going to fit any better together tomorrow than we did yesterday. I love what Midwest motorsports has been and is to me now and I’m looking forward to whatever I can do to be part of motorsports in the future.”

Dover Motorsports operates four tracks in three states, including GIR. The other tracks are its flagship track Dover International Speedway, Nashville Superspeedway and Memphis Motorsports Park.

Batycki, who took the place of Matt Strelo, was the fourth general manager at Gateway since the facility opened in 1997. He came to GIR in November 2006 with more than 15 years of experience in senior motorsports management.

He had been the team president of Biagi DenBeste Racing before arriving at Gateway. Additionally, Batycki owned and was the lead consultant of Strategic Advisors, a sports marketing consulting firm. He was also a vice president with Doug Herbert Performance Parts, Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide, Richard Childress Racing and North Carolina Motor Speedway in Rockingham, N.C.

When he wasn’t performing his duties as the track’s GM, Batycki could be found at any number of the dirt tracks in and around the St. Louis area. He was constantly doing what he thought needed to be done with Gateway and that’s trying to get race fans into the seats.

He was shaking as many hands as possible at those tracks while handing out Gateway-themed material.

In fact, Batycki was on local television Thursday morning promoting Gateway like he always did. Then a couple of hours later, McGlynn and Tatoian,who flew in from Dover, Del., delivered the bad news.

“I appreciate the respect of them coming in and discussing things face-to-face,” Batycki said.

But Dover’s management style and Batycki’s style didn’t fit. Dover wants somebody to run the day-to-day operations at its tracks and hope the fans come and have fun on any given weekend.

“I don’t mind not being that style,” he said. “That’s a good style for a lot of people. But I am promoter. I am a guy that loves motorsports, that wants to energize people to believe in how neat these athletes and machines are whether they’re going 300 miles hour straight, or digging sideways through a dirt corner or barreling down a straightaway at Gateway.”

For his part, he didn’t fail. But without a NASCAR Sprint Cup race to hang its hat on, Gateway is considered a minor-league track (equivalent to Triple A baseball). The track hosts three major events yearly _ the NASCAR Nationwide Series and the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series _ use the 1.25-mile oval, while the National Hot Rod Association races annually on the drag strip.

Next year, both the Nationwide cars and Camping World trucks will race back-to-back on July 16 and 17 and the NHRA comes to Gateway on April 30-May 2. In addition to those three major events, the track hosts various events for the local racers as well.

Gateway used to host the IndyRacing League but that open-wheel organization left after the 2003 season.

As for any immediate plans, Batycki said “I don’t have anything. There’s a lot of stuff that looks cool out there….For the next little bit, I just kind of want to see what’s out there. Be a dad (he and wife Annette have a son Jake, who turns 5 in November) and take a couple of weeks to do that. I don’t have a moving truck backed up here.”