Andretti: Wheldon switch a shock

Wheldon scored a record six victories, including the Indianapolis 500, on the way to the crown in 2005 with Andretti Green Racing.

Andretti had expected that Wheldon would stay as part of the four-car squad for next season along with teammates Tony Kanaan, Bryan Herta and Dario Franchitti, however the Briton chose to go to rival team Ganassi instead of staying with his current team, or perusing a Formula One career.

Team boss Andretti, who signed his son Marco to replace Wheldon, said he believed until the last moment that Wheldon would stay put.

"The negotiating with Dan was going on for three months," Andretti said. "All the way up until the day he told us he wasn't going to be there, he was telling us he was going to be there. He was very adamant that that's where he wanted to be.

"We were starting to get the feeling, 'If you want to be here, why aren't you signing the contract?' Finally we said, 'If you want to be here, sign it, we go on. If not, we need to look at something different.' Dan said, 'Well, I'm not ready to sign it.'

"That was a little bit of a shock to us. We were quite surprised. But we respected what he wanted to do, his plans. So we decided, OK, we need to look at our plans."