"I'm sure I'll be changing diapers by tomorrow," Wheldon said with a laugh after his stunning last-lap pass of rookie JR Hildebrand sent him to Victory Lane at the Brickyard.
Wheldon was smiling when he said it, but he wasn't kidding.
The 500 is the only race he's under contract for this season, and even the addition of a second Borg-Warner trophy to his collection doesn't mean the phone is guaranteed to start ringing off the hook anytime soon.
He's aware more than most how delicate the economy is these days. He tried to court new sponsors when his contract with Panther Racing wasn't renewed over the winter. He thought he had a deal in place to join a new team in January, but it fell through at the last minute.
Rather than take a ride with a team he didn't believe could be competitive on a weekly basis, the Englishman opted to stay at home with his wife and two young children.
"Do I sit and home and think, 'It'd be great to be out there? Absolutely,'" Wheldon said. "But it's all I can do."
Even the title "two-time Indy winner" might not be enough to get Wheldon any more work this year, though his performance put an exclamation point on a month that saw upstart teams hang with the deep-pocketed big boys at Target Chip Ganassi Racing and Team Penske.
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