FANTASY NASCAR Racin

WESLEY CHRISTIAN "JUNIE" DONLAVEY -
4/8/1924 - 6/19/2014 -
was a former NASCAR Sprint Cup Series car owner with a team based in Richmond, VA. Rarely fielding a car without his familiar #90, he began fielding his team in 1950. He drove for his team at first, but soon gave way to other drivers. Donlavey earned a reputation as working well with young drivers over his tenure, as Ken Schrader and Jody Ridley won NASCAR Rookie of the Year honors while driving for Donlavey. Donlavey made his debut as an owner in 1950 at Martinsville Speedway, where Runt Harris drove Donlavey's Oldsmobile to a nineteenth place finish. Donlavey's next race as an owner came in 1952 Southern 500, fielding the #53 Hudson Hornet for Joe Weatherly. He started 38th and finished 16th. He did not field a car again until 1957, when Emanuel Zervakis drove Donlavey's #90 Ford at Raleigh Speedway. Zervakis returned to run Donlavey's Chevys the next season, but did not a finish a race all season. Donlavey only ran one race in 1959, at the Capital City 200. Harris had a fifth place finish in that race. Throughout the 1960's Donlavey only started a few races per year with little success. Donlavey

fielded his first full time team in 1971 with Bill Dennis at the wheel. 1972-1974 Donlavey only fielded a team part time. In 1973, Donlavey secured his first full-time sponsor, signing Truxmore Industries. In 1975 he would start fielding a car full time, and Dick Brooks would be behind the wheel. He would post a second place finish at Dover, and six top fives for the year. In 1976, Brooks had eighteen top-ten finishes and finished tenth in points again. The next season, Brooks finished sixth in points, and yet again just missed winning a race; finishing second at Bristol. Brooks began 1978 by finishing fifth in two out of the first three races of the season, but despite an eighth-place points finish, Brooks departed the team. In 1979,

Donlavey signed Ricky Rudd to drive the #90. Competing in 28 races; Rudd had 17 top-ten finishes and finished 9th in points. Rudd left at the end of the season, Jody Ridley signed to drive the 90 for the full 1980 season. He had 18 top-ten finishes, finished seventh in points, and was named Rookie of the Year. The next season, he finished fifth in points and WON the Mason-Dixon 500, the only points win Donlavey would have during his career. Even with the win Donlavey lost the Truxmore sponsorship, so J.D. Stacy sponsored the car in 1982, but after he failed to post a top-five, Ridley left the team. Brooks returned to the team, where he posted two top-fives and finished 14th in points with sponsorship from

Chameleon Sunglasses. After just one top-five in 1984, Brooks departed the team for the final time. The next season, Donlavey signed rookie driver Ken Schrader to pilot the #90, with new sponsorship from Ultra Seal. Schrader had three top-tens and finished sixteenth in points. Schrader would also win the rookie of the year title, becoming the second driver to win that honor behind the wheel of a Donlavey car. In 1986, Red Baron Frozen Pizza, signed as primary sponsor, and in 1987, Schrader won one

of two qualifying races for the Daytona 500, as well as picking up a pole at Darlington Raceway, finishing tenth in championship points. At the end of the season, Schrader left, and was replaced by Benny Parsons with Bull's Eye Barbecue Sauce. Running what turned out to be his last season, Parsons competed in 27 starts and grabbed an eighth-place finish at Phoenix. After the season, Bull's Eye left the team, and Donlavey signed rookie Chad Little to his ride. However, Little struggled and was released after the Coca-Cola 600. Donlavey cut back to part-time schedule for the rest of the season. In 1990, Donlavey signed True Cure as sponsor, and at the advice of Schrader, signed

Ernie Irvan as driver. Unfortunately, True Cure did not meet their financial expectations, and Donlavey cancelled the contract. Donlavey granted permission for Irvan to seek other opportunities, and Irvan signed with Morgan-McClure Motorsports. Donlavey did not field a full team again until 1993, with Bobby Hillin as driver. With sponsorship from Heilig-Meyers, Hillin posted a best finish was eleventh and he finished twenty-seventh in points. Hillin ran just three races in 1994, before he was replaced by Mike Wallace. Wallace made 22 starts and had a fifth-place finish at the season-ending Hooters 500. He returned in 1995 but

dropped to 34th in points. After making ten starts in 1996, Wallace was released in favor of Dick Trickle, whose best finish that season was a thirteenth at Michigan. Trickle signed the next season. He posted two top-fives. In 1998, he, along with Heling-Meyers and crew chief Tommy Baldwin, Jr., left the team at the end of the year. After the loss of personnel in 1998, Donlavey announced that for 1999, he would field the #90 Big Daddy's BBQ Sauce Ford Taurus driven by rookie Mike Harmon. Big Daddy did not been pay its sponsorship checks on time, and Harmon was replaced by Mike Wallace before the Daytona 500. The

team ran the 500 with sponsorship from Accu-turn and Kodiak (a one-race deal after Kodiak's regular team missed the race). Donlavey's team never fielded a full time team again. In 2002 a Donlavey car would make it's final CUP start. His cars would start 14 events with five different drivers. Jason Hedlesky would make the team's final start, finishing last. In 2003, Kirk Shelmerdine drove Donlavey's car at the Daytona 500 twin 125's, but missed the field. Donlavey hoped to revive his team in 2004 by announcing Kevin Ray would drive a limited schedule that season with sponsorship from Boudreaux's Butt Paste. Late in the year A.J. Henriksen, began running races for Donlavey, but did not make a race. In 2006 he sold his race assets, and retired from racing. In over 45 years in NASCAR's top

series Donlavey fielded entries for 863 events. During this entire time he fielded a car enblazened with #90 on the side. His drivers did post 60 top five finishes. He gave so many young guys a chance like Bill Dennis, Ken Schrader, Ernie Irvan, Harry Gant, and Tiny Lund, just to name a few, and also gave Dick Trickle his best years in Winston Cup. He didn't race for the wins, but for the people and friendships that he made. As a result, his cars weren't always fast, and he got burned on a few sponsorship deals. But, he has said many times if he had to do it all over again, he wouldn't change a single thing that happened to him! He died in Richmond, Virginia on June 9, 2014. Donlavey was honored shortly after his death by the Sprint Cup Garage at Richmond International Raceway being named the Wesley C. Donlavey Garage. At the September 2014 Cup race in Richmond, team owner Joe Falk changed the number of his Circle Sport car from 33 to number 90 and used a retro paint scheme similar to Donlavey's

Truxmore-sponsored cars (photo above). The deck lid contained the names of the 67 drivers who raced for Donlavey (photo directly above). Falk considered Donlavey a mentor. Check out that list of drivers on the deck lid which includes many Cup Champions Hall of Fame inductees. I tried to leave it large so you could read the names. Among the more notable names are: Joe Weatherly, Tiny Lund, Speedy Thompson, LeeRoy Yarbrough, Dick Brooks, Fred Lorenzen, David Pearson, Harry Gant, Bud Moore, Buck Baker, Buddy Baker, Jody Ridley, Dick Trickle, Ricky Rudd, Ken Schrader, Benny Parsons, and many others