But, exactly whose face was being saved?

Sure, the CART news release was creative writing at its finest ('CART enhances senior management team' was the headline) and it almost made it sound like Heitzler was receiving a promotion.

Right now it's easy to pile dirt on his grave and dismiss "Jabberin' Joe" as yet another world-class song-and-dance man whose audition dazzled those impressionable CART owners.

Now, was Heitzler way over his head, way too thin-skinned, careless with the truth and not really good for office morale since he ran CART from his cell phone in L.A.? Absolutely.

But it's important to remember that many of the same guys who called for Heitzler's head Tuesday were raving about his business acumen and persona just one year ago. Heck, they were downright giddy he was a businessman and not a racer. Just a few months back, they were so pro-Joe they elected him THE CHAIRMAN.

No, the story here isn't that Heitzler failed. It's that, once again, CART picked a leader with limited knowledge of its product and sent him down a road that was covered in quicksand.

Whether it was past CEOs Bill Stokkan, Andrew Craig or Heitzler, the scenario is always the same: intelligent men with impressive resumes were thrown into a crash course in Open Wheel Racing 101.

Naturally, it's impossible to acquire the necessary knowledge to run CART's international series in a couple of years and, considering the restrictive power of the CEO in CART's framework, whomever takes this job is doomed.

Well paid, but doomed.

The only way for Heitzler to have survived would have been to surround himself with a couple of respected, knowledgeable racing people instead of the cast that currently inhabits most of CART's front office.

Heitzler couldn't be expected to know how to handle certain situations, but there was nobody for him to lean on. Nobody with the right answers, anyway.

And this is why CART has done the impossible -- they've made Tony George look like a rocket scientist compared to their disjointed plan and lack of common sense.

When the owners broke away from the United States Auto Club in 1979 to form CART, it seemed quite appropriate. CART aligned itself with PPG Industries as a series sponsor, grew its audience with street and road racing and, despite all the in-fighting and lack of leadership, woke up a few years ago with the best racing series in the world.

Today, it's in jeopardy. Not because of Heitzler, but because the owners couldn't focus on getting a competent technical chief, a sensible engine plan, a workable business format or people with passion and racing smarts to run the show.

They were evidently too busy selling their stock and counting their money while traveling in their new plane or boat to notice that CART had started taking on water and was listing badly.

Now these greedy and self-serving owners are scrambling for life jackets after pitching 'ol Joe overboard.

A year ago, CART had a choice between Heitzler and Chris Pook, the visionary behind the Long Beach Grand Prix who threw Formula One out and took a flyer on CART in 1984.

Obviously, that should have been a no-brainer for the CART boys -- a man with negligible racing experience against one of the most respected motorsports minds in the world. Naturally, CART didn't embrace Pook. ("Joe gave a really good interview and, you know, Chris can be kind of intimidating," explained one CART owner in December of 2000).

So, facing a small car count in 2002, a challenging TV package and lots of question marks about 2003 and beyond, CART has finally turned to Pook to rescue them.

If CART is lucky, Pook will take the job. If CART is smart, it will let Pook call all the shots with no interference.