“I’ve made it very clear in my mind that after four years of losing money, and when you’re on the treadmill constantly trying to make it work and then get spat off that treadmill like we did, the last thing you’re going to do is try to get back on the thing with another underfunded program,” he added.

Ramping up to run the FIA WEC calendar with Status GP will require HVM to allocate resources to the Lola-based P2 program, but Wiggins confirms that it won’t impact the personnel or assets he has earmarked for IndyCar.

“We still have key people here, management, our engineer Tom Brown and a number of our former employees are nearby,” he said. “And it could take on another form—a collaboration with another group. We also have to run our sports car program which is based at Silverstone (in the U.K.) so there will be a few international miles logged this year… Like a lot of deals today, things are interwoven and it’s not all clearly defined yet how it will look in the end. We still have a core group of people here and can mix and match.

“And we still have all of the equipment we need to run a car. We may sell to one of the people we are collaborating with and we still have enough chassis if someone wanted to do a standalone Indy 500 effort, we could put that together for them too.”

If the trials of 2012 forced Wiggins to re-think any aspects of how he ran HVM, it’s that the never-say-die, romanticized outlook he held for the IndyCar Series was in need of a more business-minded update in order to continue as an entrant.

“I’ve gone through a lot of feelings and emotions since the end of the season, and I bump into people every now and then who’ll say, ‘You always pull through Keith; if anyone can come back, it’s you’ and that kind of thing. And it sounds great and makes you feel good, but I’ve come to the realization that doing it and doing it underfunded and as one of the back teams isn’t good for one’s health or ego…

“I’ve taken the opportunity to clear the decks a bit, stand back, have a look, take a risk by branching out into sports cars but I’m not going to let myself get emotionally drawn back into IndyCar again. I’ve definitely changed after what took place last year. I want to be in racing, and if one of these deals works out it will be black and white. It will be in collaboration with someone and if it keeps our team in the series in 2013 and helps us to come back in 2014 in full strength, we will. It’s as simple as that.”

Marshall Pruett is SPEED.com's Auto Racing Editor, covering IndyCar and sports cars. Now in his 27th year in the sport, Pruett was an open-wheel mechanic, engineer and manager before joining SPEED. He also contributes to RACER, Road & Track and Racecar Engineering. Follow him @MarshallPruett.