Legendary NASCAR owner Junie Donlavey passed away Monday night at his Richmond, Va., home, but his mark on the sport will certainly not go with him.
Donlavey never won much in the top series of NASCAR, but his longevity is what stood out as most impressive. Donlavey holds exactly one win in the then-Winston Cup series, coming in the 1981 Mason-Dixon 500 at Dover, with driver Jody Ridley behind the wheel of the No. 90 Ford. Ridley also captured Donlavey’s best points finish as an owner in 1981, recording 18 top-10’s en route to a fifth-place result that year.
But look at Donlavey’s career. It’s nearly as long as NASCAR’s history itself, spanning a whopping 52 years, starting with little ol’ Martinsville Speedway (which was a dirt track then) on October 15, 1950, and ending quietly at Charlotte Motor Speedway on almost the exact same date, October 13, 2002.
During that time, Donlavey employed a laundry list of drivers, some that went on to have big careers. Included on that list is Joe Weatherly, Tiny Lund, Speedy Thompson, LeeRoy Yarbrough, Dick Brooks, Bobby Isaac, David Pearson, Fred Lorenzen, Johnny Rutherford, Harry Gant, Charlie Glotzbach, Dick Trickle, Ricky Rudd, Kenny Schrader, Benny Parsons, Buddy Baker, Ernie Irvan and Robby Gordon.
He also fielded the car of the Rookie of the Year driver three times, with Bill Dennis in 1970, Ridley in 1980 and Schrader in 1985.
Numbers mean everything, especially in a sport like NASCAR. Perhaps it was only appropriate that Donlavey passed away Monday at age 90 — the car number he so famously fielded. Out of 863 races, he ran that number all but 23 times.
Starting with that very first race at Martinsville, Donlavey had Runt Harris driving for him in a ’49 Oldsmobile, and Harris came away with a 19th-place finish out of 21 cars, completing only 41 out of 200 laps.
Throughout the years, Donlavey stayed a Ford and Mercury man. After fielding Chevy’s for a couple races in the late ’50s, Donlavey switched to Ford and never went back.
Donlavey finally broke through with that victory at Dover, a race that saw the dominant Wood Brothers Ford of Neil Bonnett and the Buick of Cale Yarborough both blow a motor while leading by multiple laps. The bad luck by others turned out to be the good luck of Ridley, who was able to hold on and win by 22 seconds over Bobby Allison.
It all ended on that October night in 2002, a race which was scheduled to run in the day but was pushed back to darkness due to rain. That night saw young Jamie McMurray take the checkered flag in only his second career start, subbing for the injured Sterling Marlin in the Chip Ganassi No. 40 Dodge.
Donlavey fielded a No. 90 Ford for Jason Hedlesky, and it would end after 31 laps after handling issues put the car in the garage early, leading to a last-place finish.
Donlavey joins fellow ledendary car owners “Hoss” Ellington and Ed Negre who have also passed away in the last week.
Ellington won five races as a car owner in his career, but was most famous for his role in the 1979 Daytona 500. Driver Donnie Allison, piloting the No. 1 Hawaiian Tropic Oldsmobile, crashed on the final lap with Cale Yarborough as the pair battled for the lead. Afterwards, the two drivers dropped the gloves along with Allison’s brother Bobby, who had stopped his car nearby. The famous fight caught America’s attention and helped grow the sport’s popularity.
Negre was most famous for owning the car that Dale Earnhardt drove in his first-ever race, the 1975 World 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Without Negre, perhaps the “Intimidator” would have never become the icon that he was and still is. Earnhardt finished 22nd that day in a ’74 Dodge, completing 355 of 400 laps.
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Main Photo: Steve Mawyer, USA TODAY Sports
