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| Benny Parsons | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | |||||||
| Born | Benjamin Stewart Parsons (1941-07-12)July 12, 1941 Wilkesboro, North Carolina, U.S. | ||||||
| Died | January 16, 2007(2007-01-16) (aged 65) Charlotte, North Carolina, U.S. | ||||||
| Cause of death | Complications resulting from lung cancer | ||||||
| Achievements | 1973Winston Cup Series Champion 1968ARCA Racing Series Champion 1969ARCA Racing Series Champion 1975 Daytona 500 Winner 1980World 600 Winner 1969 Daytona ARCA 300 Winner 1982 Daytona 500 Pole Sitter | ||||||
| Awards | 1965ARCA Racing Series Rookie of the Year Named one ofNASCAR's 50 Greatest Drivers (1998) International Motorsports Hall of Fame (1994) Court of Legends atCharlotte Motor Speedway (1994) Motorsports Hall of Fame of America (2005) ESPN Emmy (1996) ACE Award (1989) NASCAR Hall of Fame (2017) Named one ofNASCAR's 75 Greatest Drivers (2023)1988, Inducted into the Michigan Motorsports Hall of Fame | ||||||
| NASCARCup Series career | |||||||
| 526 races run over 21 years | |||||||
| Best finish | 1st (1973) | ||||||
| First race | 1964 (Weaverville) | ||||||
| Last race | 1988 Atlanta Journal 500 (Atlanta) | ||||||
| First win | 1971Halifax County 100 (South Boston) | ||||||
| Last win | 1984Coca-Cola 500 (Atlanta) | ||||||
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| NASCARGrand National East Series career | |||||||
| 2 races run over 2 years | |||||||
| Best finish | 33rd (1973) | ||||||
| First race | 1972 Buddy Shuman 300 (Hickory) | ||||||
| Last race | 1973 Sunoco 260 (Hickory) | ||||||
| |||||||
| Statistics up to date as of October 31, 2013. | |||||||
Benjamin Stewart Parsons (July 12, 1941 – January 16, 2007) was an AmericanNASCAR driver, and later an announcer/analyst/pit reporter onSETN,TBS,ABC,ESPN,NBC, andTNT. He became famous as the1973 NASCAR Winston Cup Series champion, and was a 2017NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee. He was the older brother of former NASCAR driver, car owner, and broadcasterPhil Parsons ofPhil Parsons Racing.
He was nicknamed"BP" and"the Professor", the latter in part because of his popular remarks and relaxed demeanor.
Parsons was born inWilkes County, North Carolina. He spent his childhood years in theBlue Ridge Mountains ofNorth Carolina and played football at Millers Creek High School (now known asWest Wilkes High School). Following high school, he moved toDetroit, Michigan where his father operated ataxicab company. Parsons worked at a gas station and drove cabs in Detroit before beginning his racing career. While working at the gas station one day, a couple of customers towing a race car invited him to a local race track. The driver of the car never showed up for that evening's race, and Parsons drove the car in a race for the first time later that night. Benny later moved toEllerbe, North Carolina and always called it home.[1]
Parsons began his NASCAR career by running a single race in 1964 forHolman-Moody with a youngCale Yarborough.
Parsons won the 1968 and 1969ARCA championships, and then moved toEllerbe, North Carolina.[2]
Parsons had three top-ten finishes in four NASCAR races in 1969.
Benny joined the NASCAR circuit full-time in 1970 withcrew chief John Hill. He had 23 top-ten finishes in 45 races, a pole atLangley Field Speedway, and finished eighth in the final point standings. He raced the No. 72 car forL.G. DeWitt/DeWitt Racing.
Parsons had eighteen top-ten finishes in 35 starts in 1971, including his first win atSouth Boston Speedway. He finished eleventh in the points.
In 1972, he had nineteen top-ten finishes in 31 races. He finished fifth in the final points standings.
In 1973, he won theNASCAR Winston Cup Series Championship with only one win, even thoughDavid Pearson won eleven races, although Pearson had only entered eighteen events. Parsons' consistency likely won him the championship: he had 21 top-ten and fifteen top-five finishes in the 28 events.
His improbable return to the track after an early crash cemented his 1973 championship at Rockingham, North Carolina. He saw his championship hopes start to fade as he was involved in a lap thirteen crash and his car was heavily damaged. He took to the pits to muster whatever he could out of the car and hope for a top five finish in the final standings. The rest of the garage was hoping to see the underdog unseat the mightyRichard Petty and joined in to help Parsons' crew put the car back together. Parsons miraculously got back on the track 136 laps later and completed enough laps to finish 25th and take the 1973 championship. Richard Petty, with the championship in his sights after winning the pole and seeing Parsons' accident, had engine trouble and was relegated to a 35th-place finish. The poor performance dropped Petty all the way to fifth in the final standings, asCale Yarborough took the runner up spot on the season with his third-place effort. Yarborough finished 67 points behind the champion.
Parsons became the only person to win both ARCA and NASCAR championships.
Parsons finished between third and fifth in the final points standings from 1974 to 1980, and won the1975 Daytona 500. He switched to the No. 27 entry forM.C. Anderson starting in 1979.
In 1979 atNorth Wilkesboro Speedway,Bobby Allison led most of the race, but in the final 150 laps,Darrell Waltrip caught Allison. The two hit together hard and Waltrip hit the front stretch wall. Waltrip began crowding Allison under the caution and got black flagged for the crowding. Parsons would win the race, but it would be his only win at theNorth Wilkesboro Speedway. Parsons' wife Terri, with whom he was married from 1992 until his death in 2007, became an investor inNorth Wilkesboro Speedway two years after his death.[3]
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He won the 1980World 600 atCharlotte and theLos Angeles Times 500 (the final major motor race held atOntario Motor Speedway) and finished third in points.
In 1981, he started racing in the No. 15Bud MooreFord Thunderbird. He had wins atNashville Speedway USA, the final race atTexas World Speedway, andRichmond. In addition, he received his final top-ten points finish, finishing tenth that year.
Parsons qualified for the 1982Winston 500 atTalladega Superspeedway at 200.175 miles per hour (mph), which was the first NASCAR qualification run over 200 mph (322 km/h).
Parsons raced in about half of the races between 1983 and 1986 for owner Johnny Hayes. Parsons' final career victory came in 1984 at theCoca-Cola 500 atAtlanta.
He appeared in the 1983Burt Reynolds movieStroker Ace.
Parsons joinedHendrick Motorsports in 1987 as a substitute driver forTim Richmond, who was stricken withAIDS. During the first lap of a race atDarlington Raceway, Parsons hit the wall and badly damaged his race car. He was able to continue, but had to make several pit stops for repairs. At one point, his crew chief,Harry Hyde, refused to allow Parsons to pit because he and the crew were on anice cream break. This incident was alluded to in the film,Days of Thunder. Another scene in the film was inspired by a real-life incident atMartinsville Speedway involving Parsons and the notoriously cantankerous Hyde. Hyde sarcastically told Parsons to hit thepace car on a restart because it was the only thing on the track that Parsons had not hit.[4]
Parsons drove the No. 90 Bulls Eye BBQ Ford forJunie Donlavey in his final NASCAR season in 1988 and then moved to the broadcast booth, a position that he would hold until his death.
Parsons did decide to race a few other times. The first was during the 2003 Old Dominion 500 as part of an advertising segment for "Wally's World." He then drove a ceremonial victory lap at the last fall race at Rockingham in 2003 in a 1973Chevrolet similar to the one in which he had won a championship.[citation needed]
Parsons is also credited with discovering former NASCAR driverGreg Biffle at a "Gong Show" held inTucson, Arizona.[citation needed]
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Parsons began announcing as a pit reporter in the 1980s on ESPN and TBS while he was still racing part-time. After permanently retiring from racing in 1988, Parsons became a broadcaster – first onESPN, and then withNBC andTNT in 2001. He received an ESPN Emmy in 1996, and theACE Award in 1989. He appears in the videogamesNASCAR '99,NASCAR 2000, andNASCAR 2001 as a commentator as well as an unlockable legend (he was only featured inNASCAR 2001 as an announcer). He later appeared inNASCAR Rumble as a legend in the game as well asNASCAR Thunder 2002,NASCAR Thunder 2003, andNASCAR Thunder 2004 as an unlockable driver and featured the game in NBC and TNT telecasts where Parsons did EA Sports Thunder Motion where he took viewers on a virtual ride of each track.
Parsons co-hosted coverage of Winston Cup Qualifying on North Carolina radio stationWFMX with Mark Garrow in the early '90s. He continued to co-host a radio program called "Fast Talk" onPerformance Racing Network (PRN) with Doug Rice until his death (he was replaced by an alternating host). He also had a podcast available on iTunes, in conjunction withCNN called The CNN Radio Racing Report with Benny Parsons.
Parsons appeared as himself in the 1995 children's video "NASCAR For Kids - A Day At The Races,” acting as the host.
In 2005, Parsons made acameo appearance as himself in the movieHerbie: Fully Loaded.n 2006, he again appeared as himself inTalladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby.
Parsons hosted theGolf Channel programThe Big Break: NASCAR Edition, with Brian Hammons in 2005, a celebrity version of the golf program where an entire season's worth of challenges were done in one day. Dale Jarrett, Jamie McMurray, Elliott Sadler, Rusty Wallace and Michael Waltrip competed in the celebrity special.
Parsons married twice, with his first wife Connie they had two sons Kevin and Keith and married until Connie's death in June 1991. Parsons married Terri but they would not have kids together.
Kevin Parsons played golf with theGardner-Webb Runnin' Bulldogs NCAA program, and now serves as the Vice President of Instruction atRichmond Community College, where he and his wife Kim are both instructors. Keith Parsons covered basketball for theAssociated Press in the 1990's, and later had a career in finance. He currently teaches inAnson County Schools, and al.so serves as the head golf coach.
Parsons began having trouble breathing in the summer of 2006. He was diagnosed with lung cancer. He announced in October 2006 that the treatment had been successful, and that he had a clean bill of health. Parsons had stopped smoking in 1978, the treatment cost Parsons the use of his left lung.
His health prevented him from attending a ceremony in November 2006 where he was to be presented with the Myers Brothers Award, honoring his contributions to racing.
On December 26, 2006, Parsons was readmitted to the hospital and placed in intensive care because of complications relating to lung cancer. Doctors would find a blood clot in his right lung.[5]
On January 16, 2007, Parsons died of complications from lung cancer treatment in the intensive care unit of theCarolinas Medical Center inCharlotte, North Carolina.[6] He is buried near his childhood home inPurlear, North Carolina, which is now the site of Benny Parsons' Rendezvous Ridge. Rendezvous Ridge is also his wife Terri's residence as well as being a racing museum and a winery.
(key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time.Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)
| Year | Team | Manufacturer | Start | Finish |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1969 | Russ Dawson | Ford | 11 | 7 |
| 1970 | Benny Parsons | Ford | 14 | 14 |
| 1971 | DeWitt Racing | Ford | 12 | 35 |
| 1972 | Mercury | 33 | 4 | |
| 1973 | Chevrolet | 13 | 30 | |
| 1974 | 10 | 22 | ||
| 1975 | 32 | 1 | ||
| 1976 | 32 | 3 | ||
| 1977 | 6 | 2 | ||
| 1978 | Oldsmobile | 8 | 3 | |
| 1979 | M.C. Anderson Racing | Oldsmobile | 5 | 18 |
| 1980 | 14 | 5 | ||
| 1981 | Bud Moore Engineering | Ford | 4 | 31 |
| 1982 | Ranier-Lundy Racing | Pontiac | 1 | 26 |
| 1983 | Johnny Hayes Racing | Buick | 14 | 42 |
| 1984 | Chevrolet | 8 | 29 | |
| 1985 | Jackson Bros. Motorsports | Chevrolet | 5 | 31 |
| 1986 | Oldsmobile | 31 | 5 | |
| 1987 | Hendrick Motorsports | Chevrolet | 4 | 2 |
| 1988 | Donlavey Racing | Ford | 42 | 31 |
(key) (Bold – Pole position. * – Most laps led.)
| International Race of Champions results | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Make | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Pos. | Pts | Ref |
| 1975–76 | Chevy | MCH 4 | RSD 5 | RSD 9 | DAY 1 | 3rd | NA | [30] | |||
| 1977–78 | Chevy | MCH 9 | RSD 9 | RSD 8 | DAY 5 | 7th | NA | [31] | |||
| 1978–79 | MCH 6 | MCH | RSD | RSD | ATL | NA | 0 | [32] | |||
| 1979–80 | MCH 6 | MCH | RSD | RSD | ATL | NA | 0 | [33] | |||
| 1984 | Chevy | MCH 2 | CLE 4 | TAL 5 | MCH 7 | 4th | 47 | [34] | |||
| Sporting positions | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | NASCAR Winston Cup Champion 1973 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | ARCA Champion 1968–1969 | Succeeded by |
| Achievements | ||
| Preceded by | Daytona 500 Winner 1975 | Succeeded by |