Historical Motorsports Stories writes:

"Big Daddy's BBQ: Where's The Money?"

Posted by nascarman on December 27, 2018

Viewed 3895 times Tweet Race teams exist just as long as sponsorship money is there. They put their trust in companies to provide the funds that keep people employed and new parts ordered. But of course, sometimes sponsors don't provide what is needed.



Around 1999, a barbecue sauce company came into NASCAR and promised millions of dollars in support. When it failed to provide the money, several teams were hurt by the mess that was Big Daddy's BBQ.









On December 16, 1998, Junie Donlavey announced that Mike Harmon would drive his car for the entire 1999 Winston Cup schedule. The 41 year-old Alabama driver would make his series debut in the Daytona 500 and compete for Rookie of the Year.



While Harmon has become a mainstay in the Xfinity Series for the past 20 years, when he was announced as Donlavey's driver, it was rather shocking. By that point, Harmon had run only 6 Busch races in 1996 and was moving directly to Cup from the Slim Jim All-Pro Series for late models. Harmon was successful in Alabama short track racing, but he had never won an All-Pro race and driven a full season only once.



The reason Harmon was able to get the Donlavey ride was because he brought sponsorship from Big Daddy's BBQ Sauce. In 1998, the tangy, smoky product sponsored Bob Brevak's team in the Truck Series and had one race on Jack Sprague's truck at Hendrick Motorsports. For 1999, the BBQ company planned to spend A LOT of money across all of motorsports. In addition to the Donlavey/Harmon car, they also planned to sponsor Kelly Denton in the Busch Series, Rick Crawford in the Truck Series, four drivers in Winston West, Ron Barfield in ARCA, Jac Haudenschild in World of Outlaws, Davey Hamilton in IndyCar, Ronnie Burkett in All-Pro, Von Smith in IHRA Funny Car and a few other small sponsorships in late models and legends cars. They also sponsored several PRCA professional bull riders.





Harmon's Big Daddy's Car (jayski.com/Greg Mika)



But unfortunately for Harmon and Donlavey, money problems quickly happened. By early January, it was reported that an official sponsorship agreement couldn't be reached despite already announcing it. On January 15, the contract was finally signed. Meanwhile, it was also reported that Big Daddy's still owed money to teams from 1998. Amid the shaky situation, Donlavey gave them a deadline of January 27th to make their first payment. The check they sent failed to clear the bank.



When practice began for the Daytona 500, Harmon's car was unsponsored. Big Daddy's didn't have the money to pay the teams they promised, especially the $1.5 million they owed Donlavey. Because they were a publicly traded company, the CEO planned to sell shares of stock to raise the money for their sponsorship.



As the race got closer and there was still no money, Donlavey gave up on Big Daddy's and Harmon. One day before the qualifying races, Mike Wallace was hired as driver and AcuTurn (a brake and tire company in Virginia) came aboard as sponsor. They also got sponsorship from Kodiak when their car failed to qualify. With limited practice, Wallace drove the car to a respectable 23rd place finish in the Daytona 500.



In addition to Donlavey's team, Big Daddy's sponsorship of Kelly Denton, Rick Crawford, and Davey Hamilton also fell through in the sloppy mess that followed. According to the CEO, the money problems were beyond their control.





Kelly Denton's Proposed Busch Car (jayski.com)



"I'm not hiding from anyone," Big Daddy's CEO Dan Lloyd told the Baltimore Sun in March. "I'll take responsibility for this. But I didn't go into this to make a mess of it. I didn't just run out here and make these deals on a maybe."



Most of Big Daddy's problems came from trying to sell their stock. They planned to get $6 million by selling shares of their company and had JB Marc & Associates to do the brokerage. JB Marc's president Joseph Blumenthal and their general counsel Alan Berkun were both censured and barred from the securities industry in October 1998 but were still working with Big Daddy's to sell their shares. Dan Lloyd blamed the sponsorship problems on them.



"JB Marc sent out letters of guarantee and then undersold our stock out the back door," Lloyd told the Baltimore Sun.



Blumenthal and Berkun both denied any wrongdoing but were later investigated for the way they offered penny stock of several companies. In September 2001, Blumenthal was found to have violated the Securities Act of 1933. Several years later, Berkun was sentenced to six years in jail for stock fraud. In Berkun's trial, he was also alleged to have had mafia connections.



Trying to recover from the shady people they partnered with, Big Daddy's pushed forward. With new partners to sell stock, they got the money needed to restart their sponsorship program. Between March and May 1999, they were on Lance Norick's Truck. That sponsorship again fell through for unclear reasons. They came back in August on Terry Cook's Truck and sponsored them for the rest of 1999.





Donnie Beechler's Big Daddy's IndyCar, 2000 (indy500autographs.com)



In 2000, Big Daddy's was back in the Cup Series. To sponsor the #41 car driven by Rick Mast, the BBQ company gave car-owner Larry Hedrick 15 million shares of stock worth $11,250,000.



But Hedrick soon realized that owning stock didn't keep a car running. After six races, it was clear the team wouldn't survive. Mast was mercifully released from the team and immediately went to drive for A.J. Foyt. Hedrick hired Gary Bradberry as driver, desperately looked for new sponsorship, but shut down the team for good in the middle of April.



Embarrassed yet again, Big Daddy's never returned to NASCAR. Between 2002 and 2003, the company was the title sponsor of Big Daddy's South Boston Speedway in Virginia. As a company, Big Daddy's survived for several more years before going out of business sometime in the mid-2000s.



Some might say that the sauce left a big stain on auto racing. Not only did they default on their payments to a team, they did it several times. The mismanagement of the advertising efforts appeared to be the fault of spending money they didn't have yet. And after the mess they made in racing, many people were left with a bad taste in their mouth.



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