Benny Parsons

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**Benny Parsons**
Born:	July 12, 1941
Birthplace:	Wilkes County, North Carolina
Awards:	1973 Winston Cup Champion 1968 and 1969 ARCA champion Named one of NASCAR's 50 Greatest Drivers (1998) inducted in the International Motorsports Hall of Fame (1994) inducted into the Court of Legends at Lowe's Motor Speedway (1994) inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America (2005) ESPN Emmy (1996) ACE Award (1989)
NASCAR Cup statistics
526 races run over 21 years.
Best Cup Position:	1st - 1973 (Winston Cup)
First Race:	1963 (Mt. Clemens Speedway)
Last Race:	1988 Atlanta Journal 500 (Atlanta)
First Win:	1971 Halifax County 100 (South Boston)
Last Win:	1984 Coca-Cola 500 (Atlanta)
Wins	Top Tens	Poles
21	283	20

Benny Parsons (born July 12, 1941 in Detroit, Michigan, currently resides in Charlotte, North Carolina) is an American NASCAR announcer/analyst on NBC and TNT. He became famous as the 1973 NASCAR Winston Cup (now NEXTEL Cup) champion.

He is nicknamed The Professor in part because of his popular remarks and relaxed demeanor.

In July 2006, he was diagnosed with lung cancer. Since his treatments, he has been appearing infrequently in the broadcast booth.

1 Before NASCAR
2 Driving career
3 Awards and statistics
4 NASCAR announcer
5 Cancer diagnosis
6 External links

[edit] Before NASCAR

Parsons was a Detroit cab driver before entering NASCAR competition.

[edit] Driving career

[edit] 1960s

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

Parsons won the 1968 and 1969 ARCA championships.

Parsons had three Top 10 finishes in four NASCAR races in 1969.

[edit] 1970s

He joined the circuit full-time in 1970 with Pit Crew Chief, John Hill. He had 23 Top 10 finishes in 45 races, a pole at Langley Field Speedway, and finished eighth in the points. He raced in the #72 L.G. DeWitt/DeWitt Racing car.

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 finished in 31 races. He finished fifth in the final points standings.

In 1973 he won the NASCAR Championship with only one win, even though David Pearson won eleven races (but Pearson only entered eighteen events). Parsons consistency likely won him the championship: he had 21 Top 10 and 15 Top 5 finishes in the 28 events. 1973 is considered the start of the modern era in NASCAR, so Parsons is considered the first modern era champion. Parsons also became the only person to win both ARCA and NASCAR championships.

Parsons finished between third and fifth in the final points from 1974 to 1980. He won the 1975 Daytona 500. He switched to the #27 car for M.C. Anderson starting in 1979. He won the 1980 World 600 at Charlotte.

[edit] 1980s

In 1981 he starting racing in the #15 Bud Moore car. He had a win at Nashville Speedway USA. He won the final race at Texas World Speedway. His received his final tenth place points finish by finishing tenth.

Parsons qualified for the 1982 Winston 500 at Talladega Superspeedway at 200.175 miles per hour (mph), which was the first NASCAR qualification run over 200 mph. He ran the first half of the season for Harry Ranier, and run some of the races between four other teams.

Parsons raced in about half of the races between 1983 and 1986 for owner Johnny Hayes. Parsons final career victory came at the Coca-Cola 500 at Atlanta.

He appeared in the 1983 Burt Reynolds movie Stroker Ace.

Parsons resumed full-time racing for Hendrick Motorsports in 1987. This season was infamous for a race in which he was told that he could not pit because his pit crew was eating ice cream. (This was ripped off in Days of Thunder)

Parsons raced for Junie Donlavey in his final NASCAR season in 1988.

He is also credited for discovering current NASCAR Driver Greg Biffle at a "Gong Show" held in Tucson, Arizona. All told, Biffle has won a Truck Series and Busch Series Championship and is currently driving for Roush Racing on the Nextel Cup circuit.

[edit] Awards and statistics

Inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1994.

Named as one of the NASCAR's 50 Greatest Drivers in 1988.

Inducted into the Court of Legends at Lowe's Motor Speedway in 1994.

Inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 2005.

Had 283 top 10 finishes, led at least one lap in 192 races, and finished no lower than fifth in between 1972 and 1980. [1]

[edit] NASCAR announcer

He 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 ESPN, and then with NBC and TNT in 2001. He received a ESPN Emmy in 1996, and the ACE Award in 1989.

Parsons co-hosted coverage of Winston Cup Qualifying on North Carolina radio station WFMX with Mark Garrow in the early 90s. He continues to host a radio program called "Fast Talk with Benny Parsons" on Performance Racing Network (PRN). He also has a podcast available on iTunes, in conjunction with CNN called "The CNN Radio Racing Report with Benny Parsons," who talks about NASCAR with CNNRadio's Michael Jones. http://www.cnnradionet.com/PUBLIC/Home/EnglishHTML/Bios/MichaelJones.html

In 2005, Parsons made a cameo appearance as himself playing an announcer in the movie Herbie: Fully Loaded.

[edit] Cancer diagnosis

He began having trouble breathing in the summer of 2006. He was diagnosed with lung cancer. He has since announced that the treatment was successful, and he now has a clean bill of health. [2] He stopped smoking in 1978. [3]

[edit] External links

Preceded by: Richard Petty	Nascar Winston Cup Champion 1973	Succeeded by: Richard Petty

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