As a report came over the wire that Mario Andretti would be testing an IRL car at Indianapolis, I think I can speak for everyone by saying that “shocked” was one of the first words that came to mind.

As RacingOne and Champweb reported over a month ago, legendary racer Mario Andretti was trying to revive the Champ Car race at Elkhart Lake not only for tradition, but, more importantly, for the fans. The most recent addition to the CART Board of Directors, Andretti quickly became the “savior” for many fans not only in the Champ Car community, but the motorsports community worldwide, as it is seen as blasphemous that Champ Cars would not be racing on the historic Road America. Then reports came out in Long Beach that a deal was reached between CART and Road America, and an announcement would be coming. Who was the savior? None other than the same guy who put his helmet on and jumped into his John Players Special, and went around Long Beach at full-speed: Mario Andretti! Too bad Mario wasn’t running for office at the time, or we probably would be calling him Mr. President, because the public was chanting “MARIO!”

It would seem awkward that the following events would occur all on the same day. Scheduled from early morning until early afternoon was a Board of Directors meeting, held at Champ Car headquarters in Indianapolis. On the agenda in that meeting, was Road America and to send the press release over the wires that an agreement was reached. As if the CART Board of Director meeting wasn’t busy enough, Mario decided to test his son’s IRL car at Indianapolis, with a possibility of qualifying the car if injured driver Tony Kanaan was unable to qualify.

That’s where I become confused, because the Mario Andretti of the past seven years has been nothing but pro-CART statements and actions. Even when Mario’s son decided to leave CART, and join the IRL, Mario didn’t change his views. Even more awkward was the fact that the same day CART would be making a major announcement (which was a positive announcement) Mario would essentially give the IRL positive press!

Everyone has been saying, “Mario is a racer,” but there are other “racing” machines that Mario could have tested. Just because Mario was asked to test Michael’s car doesn’t seem to figure into the equation, as the test could have been done days prior, or days after the Road America announcement.

Even more oddly, the following day a teleconference was scheduled with Road America, Pook, and Mario. Regardless of the eventual outcome of Mario’s test, he had to know that questions from the media would have cared more about Mario’s test, then the Road America announcement, which in-turn does nothing but help the IRL out. To put it simply, it just wasn’t adding up, until reports came out through that Mario now began talking about “once again” merging the two open-wheel series together.

In review, Mario says CART should be at Road America, rumors appear that CART and Road America reach agreement, CART BoD meeting, Road America agreement official, Mario tests IRL car (with nearly fatal results), Mario says two series need to merge. I’ll tell you what, if I test drive an IRL car, and almost get killed, there is no way that I want the series that I have been supporting all my life, to merge with the IRL.

With that said, I have managed to come across a rumor that Mario Andretti is now acting as the liaison between CART and the IRL, in an attempt to bring the two open-wheel series together, in some way, shape or form. It is interesting, that I heard the same crazy rumor that Mario Andretti was trying to save a “dead” race in Road America. Now, if this doesn’t make you think…