Indianapolis 500

1985

INDIANAPOLIS (AP)- Danny Sullivan took a Sunday spin- literally- and came away with his first victory in the Indianapolis 500.

Sullivan, who did a 360-degree spin at high speed after making a pass for the lead just over halfway through the race, somehow managed to miss the concrete wall, gather the car back in and go on to frustrate Mario Andretti's 15th bid for a second Indy victory.

"I thought there were 12 laps left," Sullivan said, somewhat sheepishly about the incident which took place as he tried to pass Andretti. "I thought I had to get ahead of Mario quick.

"Once we got through that, I knew we could make it. I looked at it this way: The sun was shining on me. Somebody up there was looking out for us."

Andretti, who won this race in 1969 and has come up empty-handed ever since, said of Sullivan's spin right in front of his speeding Lola, "I just prayed a little for the millisecond I had, but everything worked out all right."

The 45-year-old Andretti regained the lead when Sullivan spun on lap 120. But Sullivan got back on top for good just 20 laps later.

His white and red March racer beat Andretti's Lola to the finish line by 2.4 seconds, averaging 152.982 mph and covering the 500 miles in 3 hours, 16 minutes and 6,069 seconds. Andretti was clocked at 152.852 mph.

The race was slowed by nine caution flags and fell far below the speed record of 163.612 set last year by Rick Mears.

Roberto Guerrero of Colombia, last year's runner-up as a rookie, was third in the unofficial finish, followed by three-time winners Al Unser and Johnny Rutherford, and Holland's Arie Luyendyk, the highest finisher among the rookies.

Sullivan, 35, a jet-set playboy from Louisville, Ky., who spent several years as a journeyman in Formula One racing, finished 14th as an Indy rookie in 1982. He concentrated on the Formula One series in 1983 and did not run any Indy-car races that year, but came back last year and finished 29th after his car was damaged in a collision on the 57th lap. He also won three races on the CART Indycar circuit and finished fourth in the season standings.

"We just had it all hooked up," he said. "These guys (on his Penske Racing Team crew) were just great. We had some little problems early on. We thought we had got ourselves behind the 8-ball, but we got back in. The next thing we knew, we were leading and then they couldn't get rid of us."

Andretti was just one of six former Indy champions in the race and the only one who was in contention near the end of the 69th edition of the world's richest and most important race. Four-time winner A.J. Foyt finished 28^th in his 28th start, falling two laps short of logging 10,000 miles at Indy, while three-time winners Unser and Johnny Rutherford were fourth and fifth, respectively. Two time winner Mears was 21st and 1983 winner Tom Sneva, knocked out by one of three crashes, was 20th.

Despite having the fastest field in auto racing history and concern about increased turbulence in traffic, it was generally a safe race. There were no accidents and record speed for the first half, and there were only minor injuries in the crashes.

The last caution period came with just eight laps remaining when Bill Whittington hit the wall in turn three. When the green flag dropped Sullivan rocketed ahead, clocking laps over 205 mph on the way to taking the checkered flag in the $3 million race.

But it took an incredible combination of luck and driving skill to keep Sullivan, in his third Indy 500, in the race at all.

Sullivan ducked below Andretti in the first turn of lap 120 and momentarily held the lead. But the rear end of his car suddenly slid out and he went into a wild, tire-smoking spin up toward the wall (video).

"I stayed off the brakes so I wouldn't spin," Andretti said. "I kept my car as straight as possible. "I thought it was rather weird that he tried to do it there," Andretti continued. "I kind of sucked him in and he took the bait."

"We were side by side and then I went down on the apron with all four wheels I just looped. I thought, 'That's all she wrote.' I was just holding on."

The incident brought out a caution flag and both Sullivan and Andretti were able to pit, with Andretti coming out in front. But Andretti had problems with new tires and lost the lead to Sullivan.

The victory was the fifth at Indy for the elite Penske Racing team owned and operated by businessman Roger Penske. The team also won in 1972 with the late Mark Donohue, in 1981 with Bobby Unser and in 1979 and 1984 with Mears.

Mears was in contention only briefly early in the race Sunday and finally went out with engine problems shortly after the halfway point.

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