Let’s Go to the Tape, Move Parsons Up 2 Spots : Danny Sullivan Is Awarded a Record Payoff for Indianapolis--$507,662.50

While he was sleeping Sunday night, Johnny Parsons was moved from seventh to fifth in official finishing order of the Indianapolis 500, making even more remarkable the recent saga of the former Los Angeles policeman.

“It was the easiest two cars I ever passed,” an elated Parsons said Monday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway as the Canadian Tire team packed up and prepared to head for Milwaukee and next Sunday’s 200-mile race.

That was the only change in the unofficial standings announced Sunday after Danny Sullivan beat Mario Andretti to win the 69th 500.

The switch in positions, which dropped three-time winner Johnny Rutherford to sixth and rookie Arie Luyendyk of the Netherlands to seventh, came about when a study of the race tape revealed that Parsons had completed 198 laps instead of the 197 he had been credited with Sunday, and when Rutherford was penalized a lap for passing while the yellow caution flag was being displayed.

“I don’t believe what happened,” Parsons said. “It’s all happened so fast, and so unexpectedly. Three weeks after the track opened (May 4) we didn’t have a car, a team, a crew, anything. Then we end up getting fifth. Wow.”

Parsons, 40, son of 1950 Indianapolis 500 winner Johnnie Parsons, did not as much as sit in the Cosworth-powered March until two days before final time trials. While his half-brother, Pancho Carter, was being toasted and feted as the 500 pole-sitter, Parsons was walking through Gasoline Alley, helmet in hand, looking for a ride.

What race day irony: Carter, driving from the pole, lasted only six laps and was the first car out of the race. Parsons, starting 26th, finished fifth.

The Canadian Tire team hired Parsons as a consultant for Jacques Villeneuve, who had been unable to get the car over 195 m.p.h. in practice.

When Parsons lapped the 2 1/2-mile rectangular oval at 206 m.p.h. while sorting out the March, team manager David Billis decided to make a driver change.

“Johnny had a lot of experience here and it was apparent Jacques (Villeneuve) didn’t feel 100% comfortable with this track,” Billis said. “This was for one race only. Jacques is still our No. 1 driver and he will drive at Milwaukee.”

Where does that leave Parsons?

He and his crew are $98,862 richer, and he’s heading for Milwaukee and the Miller American 200 without a ride.

“What happened here should help,” Parsons said. “I had one team approach me and the Canadian Tire people said they were pleased with the way I handled their car. We’ll see.”

Villeneuve, younger brother of the late Formula One driver, Gillies Villeneuve, set a world record for a one-mile closed course at Phoenix last October with a qualifying speed of 155.474. But Indianapolis’ 200-plus speeds have always given the tiny French-Canadian trouble.

Last year, Villeneuve qualified here at 200.013, but did not start because of a crash during practice in which he suffered a concussion. This year he crashed twice before giving up his ride to Parsons.

Danny Sullivan found out Monday that winning the 500 may have rich rewards, but also obligations.

At Monday night’s victory banquet, Sullivan accepted a check for $507,662.50, a record payoff for Indy. From that he will keep 50% for himself, 35% goes to Roger Penske, the car owner, and 15% to the mechanics of the winning March-Cosworth.

The former record was $434,061 set last year, also by the Penske team, for driver Rick Mears, who this year finished 21st.

The total purse this year was $3,261,025, the richest in auto racing history. The former mark set here last year was $2,795,399.

Earlier Monday, however--much earlier--Sullivan was at the track at 5:45 a.m. to appear on the NBC “Today Show.” At 5:55 a.m., he was on ABC’s “Good Morning America” with World 600 stock car winner Darrell Waltrip. Then, he was taken by limo downtown for a “CBS Morning News” taping.

Later in the hot and muggy morning it was back to the Speedway, where he posed in his red driver’s suit for an endless number of “official” and sponsor pictures with, and without, his crew along the front straightaway. Each group of pictures had to be taken with Sullivan wearing a different cap for each sponsor.

Today, he and public relations aide Bob Russo, former publicity director of Ontario Motor Speedway and Riverside International Raceway, will be at New York’s Tavern on the Green for a media luncheon, followed by talk show appearances. At night, Sullivan will appear on NBC’s “Late Night” show.

Thursday, it will be back to work on the race track as the Penske team starts preparation for Sunday’s CART Indy car race.

Mario Andretti kept saying after the race that it looked to him like Sullivan was driving faster at the end of the day than he was earlier in the race.

He was right. Sullivan’s fastest lap, and the fastest leading lap in the race, came one lap from the finish--lap 199. It was 204.466 m.p.h. as Sullivan sped to a 2.4-second win over Andretti.

Surprisingly, the fastest single race lap was by Sullivan’s teammate, defending champion Rick Mears, who went 204.937 during traffic on lap 14.

The Jigger Award for the dumbest move at Indy went to Chet Fillip, who qualified a car during the first weekend, then crashed and demolished his backup car while practicing.

On the second qualifying weekend, Fillip was bumped from the lineup by faster cars--and he had no backup car to try to regain a position.

The award is named for Jigger Sirois, who waived off a qualifying speed in 1969 that not only would have gotten him into the race, but because of unusual weather conditions, would have put him on the pole.

Sirois tried again later, failed to get up to speed, and despite more attempts in future years, never made the 500.