(born
July 12 ,
1941 in
Detroit, Michigan ) is an
American NASCAR announcer/analyst on
NBC and
TNT . He became famous as the
1973 NASCAR Winston Cup (now
NEXTEL Cup ) champion in the
NASCAR .
He is nicknamed ''The Professor'' in part because of his popular remarks and relaxed demeanor.
Parsons began his NASCAR career by running one race in 1964 for
Holman-Moody .
Parsons won the 1968 and 1969
ARCA championships.
Parsons had three Top 10 finishes in four NASCAR races in 1969.
He joined the circuit full-time in 1970. 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 .
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 .
Parsons resumed full-time racing for
Hendrick Motorsports in 1987.
Parsons raced for
Junie Donlavey in his final NASCAR season in 1988.
After 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 also hosted a radio program called "Fast Talk with Benny Parsons" on
Performance Racing Network (PRN).
