Wheldon Again Hints at IRL Defence

Wheldon, who secured the IRL title in only his second full season in the sport with a record breaking six wins, says that his future will be announced shortly, and he still feels inexperienced in the IRL.

The Indy 500 winner has been linked with racing in other series next season, including Formula One and NASCAR, but appears increasingly likely to defend his crown with Andretti Green Racing next season.

"Hopefully, I mean, you just have to wait and see. I think it's going to be announced shortly," Wheldon said. "I think the important thing in motor racing is you can be forgotten very quickly if you don't continue to win.

"Certainly that's what I love to do. I love to keep learning. I still feel very inexperienced. This is only my second full season in IndyCars. I still feel like I learn a lot from my teammates.

"They've been around for nine, 10, 11 years at the top level and performed very, very well. I'd just like to keep winning as much as I possibly can."

Andretti Green Racing team boss Michael Andretti would like to keep the current line-up of Wheldon, Tony Kanaan, Dario Franchitti and Bryan Herta in 2006, and said is close to finalising the deal.

"We're working on it. It's a big job," Andretti said. "We have a lot of things that we got to get ironed out. We're getting there. We're very happy with the progress that's been made, especially the last few weeks. Hopefully soon we'll have it all wrapped up so we can enjoy the holidays.

"We would love to keep the team intact for sure."