(
July 12 1941 –
January 16 2007 ) was an
American NASCAR driver, and later an announcer/analyst on
TBS ,
ESPN ,
NBC and
TNT . He became famous as the
1973 NASCAR Winston Cup (now
NEXTEL Cup ) champion.
He was nicknamed ''BP'' and ''The Professor'', the latter in part because of his popular remarks and relaxed demeanor.
Parsons spent his childhood years in the
Blue Ridge Mountains of
North Carolina and played football for Millers Creek High School (now known as West Wilkes High School) in
Wilkes County . Following high school, he moved to
Detroit, Michigan where his father operated a
Taxicab 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.
Motorsports Hall of Fame of America
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.
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 finishes in 31 races. He finished fifth in the final points standings.
In 1973 he won the 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. He finished 67.15 points behind the champion. Cecil Gordon's 11th place finish was good enough for third in the standings and James Hylton finished 19th, enough to overtake Petty for fourth.
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 and finished 3rd in points.
In 1981 he starting racing in the #15
Bud Moore car. He had a win at
Nashville Speedway USA and he won the final race at
Texas World Speedway . He received his final top-ten points place finish, finishing tenth that year.
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 ran some of the other 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 in 1984 at the
Coca-Cola 500 at
Atlanta .
He appeared in the 1983
Burt Reynolds movie ''
Stroker Ace ''.
Parsons returned to on a restart because it was the only thing on the track Parsons had not hit
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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-Fenway Racing on the NEXTEL Cup circuit.
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 continued to host a radio program called "Fast Talk with Benny Parsons" on
Performance Racing Network (PRN) until his death. He also had 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 .
In 2005, Parsons made a ''.
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. He then had difficulty breathing, and it was said the
Radiation had damaged his left lung, making it unable to function properly. Doctors said his body would adjust to his good lung. 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.
Parsons in Intensive Care
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 .
NASCAR.com "Parsons, 65, dies after battle with lung cancer"
