Danny Sullivan’s Car Simply Runs Out of Fuel

A less charming guy would have been stomping around his pit pointing fingers, growling that any question about race strategy be directed to the so-called experts. That act has played the racing circuit many a season.

But that’s not Danny Sullivan’s style. He’s more comfortable flashing that heart-melting smile, facing the not-so-comfortable facts with ease and grace.

Danny Sullivan finished the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach Sunday in third place because his car ran out of fuel and coasted into the pits twice.

Mario Andretti, who won the race, made just one stop for fuel. Emerson Fittipaldi took second when he raced across the finish line as Sullivan pushed his car into the pits.

Sullivan, driving his first race for the Penske team, simply chalked this race up as a learning experience, both for him and his new team.

Penske team manager Derrick Walker said: “We made some changes last night to go faster today. It was a gamble, but it didn’t work out. As you can see, a lot of others were having the same problem.”

Roger Penske, owner of the March 85C that Sullivan is driving this season, was impressed that he had worked his way up from ninth place to take the lead from Andretti on one point.

“Danny didn’t lose the race because of the way he drove, he lost the race because we didn’t have the fuel figured out the way they did,” Penske said.

“We knew we were in trouble at the first stop. That’s why we turned the boost down on both cars. (The other team car was driven by Al Unser.) Even with the boost down, Danny caught Andretti and passed him.

“It’s obvious that on a road course, he’s as good as anyone.”

Sullivan, who drove his first full season of Indy car racing last year, is considered a road racing specialist because of his background in Can-Am and Formula One racing.

And he had no trouble Sunday with the streets of Long Beach or with the jockeying and jousting on the track. His undoing was that yellow fuel light that kept winking at him while he was trying to keep his eyes on the road.

Sullivan was the first of the leaders to stop for fuel, turning in to the pits on lap 37 of the 90-lap race. “We knew we were in trouble when we had to make that first stop early,” Sullivan said.

Even after making that early stop, Sullivan worked his way back into second place before Andretti made his one and only stop--but Andretti had such a big lead that he was still in the lead when he came back out.

In order to run the entire race with just one stop, Andretti dialed his boost back to conserve fuel. Sullivan--despite having dialed back his boost, too--was therefore able to close in.

On lap 58, Andretti came behind Unser and needed to lap him in order to keeping running away from Sullivan, who was right on his tail. But Unser was too smart and too much of a team player to be too polite. Even after he saw the flag that means, “Get that slow-moving vehicle out of the way,” it took him a while to pick a good spot to let Andretti pass.

In fact, he let Andretti pass only after Sullivan had passed Andretti on turn 9 of lap 59.

Unser, of course, denies intentionally blocking Andretti. Sullivan said he heard nothing about such a fiendish plan on his radio. “I don’t think Al chopped him any more than he would have whether I had been behind him or not,” Sullivan said.

Sullivan enjoyed the lead for 20 laps, stretching it to more than 16 seconds before coasting into his pit with an empty fuel tank.

“That was what killed us,” Sullivan said. “We had to come in with a head motor. Then we had a problem with the starter motor and may have taken off too fast and not gotten enough fuel.”

So he ran out again at the end of the race.

He was disappointed, but not bitterly disappointed. He’s looking forward to racing at Indianapolis next month with a team that he joined, he said, because of its reputation and reliability.

“I think we proved something today,” Sullivan said. “And it made a great show.”