Rear View: Sullivan's Long Beach spin and win

Danny Sullivan became known as Mr. Spin and Win after his incredible rotation and recovery drive to earn victory at the 1985 Indy 500. Seven years later, at the Long Beach Grand Prix, Sullivan put his nickname to use in a most unique and unfortunate way, and was duly met with rage by half of his Galles/Kraco Racing team.

On the 25th anniversary of Sullivan's penultimate IndyCar win, it's worth taking a trip back to Long Beach 1992 with Sullivan to get the inside story on tipping his cherished teammate into a spin and out of the lead, and the immediate fallout that came from spoiling Al Unser Jr..'s quest to win five consecutive Long Beach races.

The 1992 race should have ended with Michael Andretti atop the podium. His Newman/Haas Racing Lola T92/00-Ford/Cosworth was the fastest car in the field, beat Sullivan to pole position, and went on to lead the first 44 laps with ease. The old Andretti Curse made sure Michael's charge ended on lap 44 with gearbox failure, and with Unser Jr. trailing in second at the time, the lead was passed from one famous second-generation driver to the next.

Little Al's streak of four straight Long Beach wins with the team owned by Rick Galles and Maurice Kraines was the obvious headline to follow, and with Andretti's sudden retirement, the chance to extend that record to five became an unexpected possibility.

Unser Jr., in the prime of his career, took charge and led through lap 78 of 105, and even managed to overcome a slow final pit stop to pass Sullivan on cold tires and retake the lead before the end of the lap. Only the oft-maligned journeyman driver Hiro Matsushita, a slight bobble on the backstretch by Unser Jr. to pass the reviled "King Hiro," and Sullivan's optimistic dive to the inside of today's Turn 9 could thwart Little Al's "Drive for Five."

"[Bobby] Rahal and Emerson [Fittipaldi] I think we were catching us and we got held up by Hiro – King Hero," Sullivan said. "I'm watching my mirrors coming down the back straightaway...and Al had gone down the inside. That is how we got past Hiro.

"I was right behind him, and so I'm watching my mirrors – I'm keeping an eye on where those guys were holding. They weren't quite close enough to make a pass, but they were within striking distance."

With the 1992 version of the Long Beach circuit, drivers entered the back straight through a section of the city streets that are no longer part of the track, yet offered a faster launch and higher top speed before arriving at the current Turn 9. The back straight was also wider than it is today, which gave drivers multiple lanes to try and pass in the braking zone. With those speeds and options in mind, Sullivan tried to use Matsushita as a "pick" to pull off a pass for the lead as the corner approached.

"And Al brakes earlier than he normally brakes," he continued. "Admittedly, we were more over inside than the regular line, but this was quite substantially more than where we brake. And I was, 'Oh, s••t!' and I jumped on the brakes and I tagged him. And I didn't bump him out of the way."

The relatively mild meeting of Sullivan's left-front wing endplate and Unser Jr.'s right-rear tire was enough to tip Little Al into a half spin as his teammate, Rahal and Fittipaldi streamed by with four laps to go. The fault laid squarely on Sullivan, but he bristles at the suggestion it was intentional.

"First of all, it wasn't the last lap," he said, "and to bump somebody in an IndyCar, you've got to be pretty sure you don't have far to go because you can damage the front suspension, the wing. This isn't a Cup car. It is a delicate deal. And I hit him...anyway, the rest is history, I went on to win. But [the team was] pissed that Al didn't win because it would've made five for him or something like that."

Sullivan would score the first victory for the Galmer G92 chassis funded by Galles and built in a partnership with designer Alan Mertens. Despite applying the "Spin and Win" formula to Little Al at Long Beach, Sullivan and Unser Jr. would eventually reconcile the matter. Although Sullivan has fond memories of his Long Beach win, his time spent with the Galles/Kraco program from 1992-'93 lacks the same reverie.

As a newcomer to the team after Bobby Rahal left to start his own team at the end of 1991, Sullivan soon learned his past success – including the Indy 500 win and the 1988 CART IndyCar Series championship – with Roger Penske meant very little. With four seasons spent with his fellow New Mexico native Rick Galles and the 1990 CART title to their credit, Unser Jr. was like Albuquerque-bred royalty within the program.

Coming off two fruitless seasons with the Alfa Romeo IndyCar project, Sullivan was not treated with the same regard that might have been offered if he came straight from Penske Racing. Any notion of being considered an equal, Sullivan says, was quickly dispelled during a pre-season Galles/Kraco gathering.

"We had a meeting where everybody was sitting with their sponsors and everything, and Al Jr.. said, 'You don't understand: this is my team. Everything is for me,'" he revealed. "And, by the way, he was correct."

The following year at Detroit, where Sullivan earned his final IndyCar win, produced another heated response that only widened the considerable divide between the two camps.

"At Detroit, Al cost himself that race," he said. "And I will tell you why. I was leading [and] I had a turbocharger problem. Well, at Detroit there's not much of a straightaway. And we'd been told repeatedly, repeatedly, repeatedly, go down the back straightaway and you have that left and right, and if you go through the cones you are considered off-track and it is a penalty."

Under pressure from behind by Unser Jr., Sullivan was a bit of a sitting duck, but wasn't going to surrender the lead without offering some resistance.

"I'm fighting for the win too," he added. "So you go in deep and stuff like that, but Al, there was no way I was going to hold off Little Al, he was too good of a racer. There was no way with my turbocharger issue I was going to hold off Little Al. It wasn't going to happen. But he out-braked himself and went through the cones, so he got penalized. I went and held [everyone] off and won the race."

Like Long Beach, Sullivan's crew was plenty pleased, but the elation stopped there.

"Here is how toxic the situation was," he said. "Galles, because they were all going back to New Mexico, they had a pretty good system that one team, meaning Al's team or my team, would stay and load the truck and get everything and go back the next day. The other team would leave and catch the early flight and go home that night – and they would rotate it. Anyway, it was Little Al's [team's turn], and I get to Detroit airport, and I carried the trophy back with me. And I was walking through and I saw [Little Al's] guys in the bar. So I go in to buy them drinks.

"They were rude as can be; they didn't want to talk to me. They were pissed. Al hadn't won the race. And I said, 'You know, guys, you realize Little Al is going to be gone next year.' And they denied it. And I didn't know for sure, but everybody pretty much knew that Little Al was going to go to Penske.

And I said, 'Look, I'm your f***ing driver; the guy is going to dump you. If you guys want to be that way, f••k you, guys.' Literally, I said, 'F••k you, guys, I got the trophy, and I'm out of here.'"

Sullivan was fired just before the start of the 1994 season – too late to find a decent ride – and returned in 1995 with the new PacWest Racing team where he spent his 12th and final year in CART. The ensuing lawsuits with Galles aside, time has softened Sullivan's views on his Galles/Kraco days, and he and Little Al remain friends a quarter-century after their internecine fight.

"There's good camaraderie," he said. "We fought wars. It was a fiercely competitive group. There were some times where we all wanted to come to blows. But I look back on it with real fond memories."

Listen to Sullivan's full interview on Long Beach 1992 and his tempestuous days at Galles/Kraco below: