Seriously, Mario?

http://motorsportstalk.nbcsports.com/2013/11/16/to-mario-andretti-indycars-2014-schedule-is-not-plausible

Mario, I have a lot of respect for you and your opinions, but this is one opinion I can't agree with, I'm sorry.  

The problem with Mario's argument is F1 is far bigger globally than the NFL, and NASCAR has always run its schedule well into the Fall. IndyCar is trying to rebuild its popularity, and maybe, not going up against college football and the NFL is the start of that where you can get to a point where you can run races into perhaps November.

Mario is an idiot, I don't see why everyone makes such a huge deal about him. He won the Formula 1 championship in a car that was miles better than the field. I'll give him the Indy and Daytona 500's. But I always have thought there were and are much better drivers in the world, than Andretti!

Not surprising really. My dad has met Mario and said that although he's not a mean person he seems to think he knows anything and that seems to remained the case since my dad met him in the 1990s. I see his point. It's not a good idea to fit into the schedule of the NFL, because then you have a huge offseason. What they need to do is expand their popularity beyond the Indy 500. That race remains a huge deal and I know many people who are not indycar fans who watch it. But many of those people don't watch any other races, and they've got to change that. And shortening the calendar is a bad idea.

I can see his point, the only problem with his argument is that this type of schedule did happen before (ok, not ending in August, but in the first or second week of September), it's just that during that offseason, NASCAR was not as big as it is now, and neither was the NFL. The IRL's first ever race was on my birthday (January 27, 1996), so starting the season earlier and ending in August might be a better option.