Hills Bros. make quick exit from Donlavey.

W.C 'Junie' Donlavey's eponymous team looks set to continue for the rest of the 2001 NASCAR Winston Cup season without a primary sponsor following the abrupt departure of both Hut Stricklin and sponsors Hills Bros and NASCAR's longest serving team owner now faces an uphill struggle to keep his No.90 team on the grid next year.

Half way through the 2001 NASCAR Winston Cup season things looked fairly rosy for the hard trying Donlavey Racing equipe when Hut Stricklin drove to a fantastic sixth place finish at the Michigan International Speedway and scored a string of top 20 finishes. However as the season draws to a close the future of the No.90 team looks as uncertain as the current financial climate in America when Hills Bros Coffee demanded that their logo's be taken off the cars in time for Sunday's Checker Auto Parts 500 at the Phoenix International Raceway just days after Stricklin left the team and signed a contract for 2002 with Bill Davis Racing, taking Hills Bros with him.

As he bids to keep his team afloat, 77-year-old Donlavey hired Rick Mast to take controls of the No.90 Ford until the end of the year and Mast placed the car 27th on the grid for Sunday's race. However even with more teams than sponsors currently floating around NASCAR and several established, better funded teams facing the prospect of running on a reduced budget next year, Donlavey feels confident that he can keep the team alive over the winter and into 2002 and beyond.

"Our performance this year has not been as good as we hoped and expected," said Donlavey who is currently 40th in Winston Cup owner points. "Obviously, it was not as good as our sponsor, Hills Brothers Coffee, wanted since they notified us that they were leaving at the end of the season.

"It is in our team's best interest to make whatever change we could to improve our performance," he continued. "I decided to replace the driver, Hut Stricklin, with Rick Mast.

"We received a registered letter today informing us that Hills Brothers Coffee does not agree with my decision and is terminating their contract with us effective immediately. They asked us to remove all identification from the car and we are complying.

"We qualified 27th this week and we expect to have a great race this weekend with Rick Mast and look forward to my 53rd year as a NASCAR car owner beginning with The Daytona 500 in February."

Statement ends.