Big Daddy's BBQ Sauce

The logo for the company

**Big Daddy's BBQ Sauce** was a company that produced barbecue sauce, spices, meats, and backyard brew . The company was based and founded in Yukon, Oklahoma in 1998. The compay attempted to sponsor the no.90 Donalvey Racing Ford in 1999, and sponsored Larry Hedrick Motorsports' no.41 Chevorlet in 2000.

The organzation was one of the most controversial sponsors in the series, with multiple instances of not living up to its financial obligations.

## Donlavey Racing

In Decmeber 1998, Junie Donalalvey announced that the team would return in 1999, with the company as a sposnor and rookie Mike Harmon driving because Big Daddy's had the money in the bank from sponsoring Harmon. However it was not until Mid-January of '99 when Donlavey finally got the comapny to sign on the dotted line. During the lead-up to the Daytona 500, rumors began spreading that Big Daddy's was not paying its sponsorship checks. Originally, those rumors were denied by Donlavey, but on January 27th, when they got the first check from the company, it bounced. And all of the other race team with Big Daddy's as a sponsor also began to report missed payments. Because of this, Harmon was fired and the Big Daddy's contract was terminated. The team then showed up at Daytona with an unspored car and Mike Wallace drivng. The team luckily accuired sposnorhip from Accu-turn.

Sometime later, The Baltimore Sun tracked down the company's CEO Dan Lloyd. According to Llyod the money problems were beyond their control. "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. 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 imprisonment for stock fraud. In Berkun's trial, he was also alleged to have had mafia connections.

Sometime later between March and May of 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.

## Hedrick Motorsports

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 in the middle of April.

## Fate

Big Daddy's survived for several more year s after the fact before going out of business sometime in the mid-2000s.