Only a Few People Triumph in 500 : Indy Win Changes Sullivan’s Life

Life hasn’t stopped spinning for Danny Sullivan since he took a spin and still won the Indianapolis 500 last year.

“Winning Indy changed my life completely,” he said. “I don’t think it’ll ever be the same because as long as I keep racing, and even after, I’ll be one of the few people who won Indy.”

Sullivan, 35, was just another good driver when he showed up at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway last May. On race day, the Indy-car glamour boy wasn’t even one of the favorites.

But once the gentlemen started their engines, he came on strong to challenge front-running Mario Andretti, the 1969 Indy winner.

Sullivan took the lead with a daring move coming out of the first turn, and suddenly found himself spinning at 190 mph, the concrete wall beckoning his red and white March.

Andretti, hard on the brakes, snuck past, but Sullivan somehow avoided a crash, roared after Andretti and passed him--this time for good.

“Sullivan Spins And Wins” headlines proclaimed the followng day.

He’s been spinning ever since.

“This is a title you always carry with you. There’s a lot of responsibility that goes with it,” Sullivan said, just before practice opened this weekend for the May 25 race. “I’ve got sponsors and team obligations and endorsements and I’m being pulled in a million directions.

“For me, this has been financially rewarding and winning Indy and getting this kind of attention is something you always work for.”

So is winning, which he hasn’t done consistently since last May.

Sullivan has qualified well at nearly every race he’s entered, but because of mechanical problems, he has finished only a handful of events and won only the season-finale last November at Miami.

Driving for the elite Penske Racing Team, headed by perfectionist Roger Penske, that isn’t good enough. Penske’s drivers have won five Indys and four of the last seven.

“It was really strange the way things happened,” Sullivan said. “At Cleveland, we’re running off to a big lead and something silly breaks. At the Meadowlands, I got too aggressive early and made a mistake. It was never the same thing twice.

“But we were always knocking on the door. That’s one of the reasons for joing Penske, to be competitive in every race.

“We were more frustrated than disappointed. You have to remember we had nine front-row starting positions and led 10 races and led a lot of miles.

“As the Penske team, we didn’t have a bad year. Big Al (Al Unser) won the championship and Rick (Mears) won Pocono.”

Sullivan was a distant fourth in the season-opener at Phoenix and, after winning the pole, finished 11th after mechanical problems stopped him at Long Beach.

Still, he’s glad to be going back to Indy.

“Some people figure there will be a lot of pressure on me because I’m the defending champion, but I look at it differently. By winning the race, I feel like I’ve released a certain amount of pressure,” he said. “I’ve done it, I’ve proved I could do it. It’s one of every Indy driver’s goals to win this race, for the team, the sponsor, yourself, and I’ve done it.

“Maybe we can do it again.”