Indy 500: If Winner Dan Wheldon Can't Find More Work IndyCar CEO Should Be Fired

How is it possible that after the most unpredictable, remarkable finish in Indianapolis 500 history that the winner is promptly out of a job with an uncertain future ahead?   

Racing’s unexpected new hero, Dan Wheldon, who is rapidly moving up the ranks of all-time Indianapolis 500 winners, is unemployed. 

He won his second Indy 500 on Sunday and now has a three-race Indy streak of two straight second-place finishes and a victory. 

It absolutely doesn’t get much better than that. 

But two weeks from now, at Texas, IndyCar’s next stop, Wheldon doesn’t have a ride.  In fact, he has nothing lined up for the rest of the IndyCar season. 

Are you kidding me?  This is a joke.  

One of the world’s best drivers looking for work, a man in his prime, still with a burning desire to win.  How can IndyCar build on perhaps the most dramatic finish ever witnessed if one of the starring characters in that drama can’t find a job? 

IndyCar has become a place where even the unqualified, like Ryan Hunter Reay, or the incompetent, like Milka Dunno, can buy their way into a race while good drivers like former Indy 500 winner Buddy Rice and current winner Dan Wheldon can only hope for a chance to take the steering wheel.  

There is something terribly wrong about that.  It is a tragic paradox and a sad commentary about how far IndyCar has fallen.  

If IndyCar is ever to regain its rightful place in the auto racing world, then Randy Bernard, IndyCar's CEO, must find a way to ensure that a solid core of recognizable drivers stay and prosper in the series. Bernard, the former leader of the Professional Bull Riders circuit, and is recognized by many as a sports visionary who has breathed new life into IndyCar, now faces his toughest challenge.    

That said, let me take this one step further: If Dan Wheldon fails to drive at Texas and then struggles to find a ride for the remainder of the season, then Randy Bernard should be out of a job, too.