Benny Parsons

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Benjamin Stewart Parsons (July 12, 1941 – January 16, 2007) was an American

Parsons began his NASCAR career by running a single race in 1964 for Holman-Moody with a young Cale Yarborough.

Parsons won the 1968 and 1969

Parsons had 18 top-10 finishes in 35 starts in 1971, including his first win at South Boston Speedway. He finished eleventh in the points.

In 1972, he had 19 top-10 finishes in 31 races. He finished fifth in the final points standings.

In 1973, he won the

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 13 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 mighty Richard 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, as Cale 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 the 1975 Daytona 500. He switched to the No. 27 entry for M.C. Anderson starting in 1979.

In 1979 at North 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. Benny Parsons would win the race, but it would be his only win at the North Wilkesboro Speedway. Parsons' wife Terri, with whom he was married from 1992 until his death in 2007, became an investor in North Wilkesboro Speedway two years after his death.^[3]

1980s

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He won the 1980

Parsons raced in about half of the races between 1983 and 1986 for owner Johnny Hayes. Parsons' final career victory came in 1984 at the

He appeared in the 1983 Burt Reynolds movie Stroker Ace.

Parsons joined

Parsons drove the No. 90 Bulls Eye BBQ Ford for Junie 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 1973 Chevrolet similar to the one in which he had won a championship.^{[citation needed]}

Parsons is also credited with discovering former NASCAR driver Greg Biffle at a "Gong Show" held in Tucson, Arizona.^{[citation needed]}

Awards and statistics

• Inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame in 2016 as part of the Class of 2017.
• Inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1994.
• Named as one of the
  NASCAR's 50 Greatest Drivers
  in 1998.
• Inducted into the Court of Legends at Charlotte Motor Speedway in 1994.
• Inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America^[5] in 2005.
• Had 283 top 10 finishes, led at least one lap in 192 races, and finished no lower than fifth in points between 1972 and 1980.^[6]

Motorsports career results

NASCAR

(key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)

Grand National Series

Winston Cup Series

Daytona 500

International Race of Champions

(key) (Bold – Pole position. * – Most laps led.)

Broadcasting career

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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 on

Parsons co-hosted coverage of Winston Cup Qualifying on North Carolina radio station WFMX with Mark Garrow in the early '90s. He continued to co-host a radio program called "Fast Talk" on Performance 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 with CNN 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 a cameo appearance as himself in the movie Herbie: Fully Loaded. In 2006, he again appeared as himself in Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby.

Illness and death

Parsons began having trouble breathing in the summer of 2006. He was diagnosed with lung cancer. He announced later that the treatment had been successful, and that he had a clean bill of health. Parsons had stopped smoking in 1978.

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.^[33]

On January 16, 2007, Parsons died of complications from lung cancer treatment in the intensive care unit of the Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte, North Carolina.^[34] He is buried near his childhood home in Purlear, 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.

References

External links

• Official website
• Benny Parsons driver statistics at Racing-Reference
• Rendezvous Ridge, a Benny Parsons Vineyard (owned by his widow)
• Benny Parsons at NASCAR.com
• Benny Parsons at the International Motorsports Hall of Fame
• "Fast Talk with Benny Parsons" radio show
• "Talking with legends" USA WEEKEND, Feb. 19, 2006.^{[permanent dead link]}