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.
Afterwards, Donlavey started his own auto repair business, and began to develop an interest in racing.
[2] His age of death is ironic, but very fitting in some aspects, because 90 was the number that Donlavey raced with for his team from 1950 to 2002.
At the September 2014 Cup race in Richmond, team owner Joe Falk changed the number of his Circle Sport car from 33 to 90 and used a retro paint scheme similar to Donlavey's Truxmore-sponsored cars.
The deck lid contained the names of the 67 drivers who raced for Donlavey.