Danny Sullivan

They can't call him "Hollywood" anymore. They can't say, "What's the matter, Sullivan, your surf board broke?" Or, "Hey, Danny, this isn't a movie, this is real. Where's your stunt man?" Or, "Hey, Danny, what's the matter, no snow at Aspen?" Danny Sullivan is a real live bona fide Indianapolis racer now. He hit the wall. He broke his arm. He could have been killed. He not only came down the main straight in a March Cosworth, he came down in a stock ambulance. He's been in Victory Lane, he's also been in Methodist Hospital.

Where genetic food is involved, no one seems able to give a nonpartisan opinion. Jack Kemp doles out the pro-genetic spin ("Be Not Afraid, Use Genetics to Feed the World's Hungry," Commentary, Dec. 3). Someone with Kemp's considerable experience in government knows better than to suggest that higher crop yields are going to stave off world famine. Kemp does the issue a disservice by painting his adversaries as radicals. There are very real dangers associated with genetically modified crops.

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, taking advantage of Robby Gordon's blown tire on the last lap, earned his first Indy-car victory in more than a year in the Detroit Grand Prix on Sunday. Sullivan crossed the finish line in a Lola-Chevrolet 12.21 seconds ahead of the Lola-Ford of Brazilian Raul Boesel, averaging 83.116 m.p.h. Mario Andretti was third in a Lola-Ford, ahead of Andrea Montermini in a Lola-Chevy. Only eight of the 28 starters completed the 77-lap race over the 2.1-mile, 14-turn course on Belle Isle.

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.

Every night this month, on just about every TV channel around here, Danny Sullivan does his "This is how I won the Indy 500" trick, a 360-degree spin in front of Mario Andretti that defies logic, racing luck or traction. Every time you see it, the feeling is the same: It can't be true. No one spins at close to 200 m.p.h., comes out heading in the right direction, and wins the world's most important race against no less than the great Andretti himself. Sullivan has been in a spin ever since.

Danny Sullivan edged Al Unser Jr. for the provisional pole for Sunday's Escort 200 Indy car race at Lexington, Ohio.

For 103 of 105 laps Sunday, the Long Beach Grand Prix was unfolding as usual. I mean, Little Al Unser was winning it. What else is new? Little Al wins Long Beach. And the Pope is Catholic, and there are bear tracks in the woods and the sun rises in the east. They were getting the trophy ready. After all, young Master Unser has won this thing the last four years in a row. This race is not a contest, it's just a recital.

It was almost a dead ringer for the collision in 1989 that allowed Al Unser Jr. to win his second consecutive Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach. This time, though, Little Al was on the wrong end of the late-race bump, and instead of winning his fifth consecutive race here, he finished fourth. In '89, Mario Andretti was leading when Unser bumped him from behind in the hairpin, knocking the Andretti patriarch out of the race, which Unser won.

It appeared that Al Unser Jr. would win a record fifth consecutive Indy car race through the streets of Long Beach when he felt a tap behind him. From his teammate, Danny Sullivan, of all people. The tap was enough to spin Unser around, allowing Sullivan, Bobby Rahal and Emerson Fittipaldi to slip past. It occurred three laps from the finish of the 105-lap race Sunday and Sullivan held on to become the first driver other than an Andretti or an Unser to win the Toyota Grand Prix.

CART, the Indy-car sanctioning body, has fined drivers Danny Sullivan and Willy T. Ribbs and placed both on probation after an on-track incident and an off-track shouting match at Sunday's Marlboro Grand Prix.

If Danny Sullivan needed a reminder of how racing's other half lives, he's getting it this season. The golden boy with the silver spoon, the driver whose spin-and-win trick here in the Indianapolis 500 thrilled and amazed the racing world only six years ago, the longtime member of the powerful Penske team is, for want of a better word, struggling. Part of that is because, as odd man out in a sponsorship shuffle, he no longer is affiliated with that powerful Penske team.

The other drivers called him "Hollywood." They thought he was too pretty to be in a race car. The back seat of a limo, perhaps. His profile would get mussed, his hair out of place. This wasn't Warner Bros., they warned him. This was for real. Nobody would call, "Cut!" if the car turned right. He couldn't hire a stuntman for the race scenes. You had to do your own stunts here. There were no happy endings guaranteed. The star could get killed off in the first reel in this melodrama.

Danny Sullivan, still unemployed for 1991, gave himself another bargaining chip Saturday when he qualified his Penske-Chevy at 110.113 m.p.h. to win the pole for today's Champion Spark Plug 300 at Laguna Seca Raceway. Sullivan will be making his final appearance for the Penske team after a six-year career that included a victory in the 1985 Indianapolis 500 and a national driving championship in 1988. Mario Andretti, in a Lola-Chevy, will start alongside Sullivan after a 109.547 lap.

The operable phrase around the paddock at Laguna Seca Raceway Friday was, "It's a done deal, believe me." The Champion Spark Plug 300 here Sunday will be the final CART Indy-car race of the 1990 season and there are a number of seat assignments still vacant as teams and drivers begin looking forward to 1991. Al Unser Jr. has already clinched the championship and its $400,000 bonus, so most of the talk between practice and qualifying sessions was about who might be going where. "It's a done deal.