Benny Parsons

1973 NASCAR Winston Cup Series Champion

Born: July 12, 1941
Hometown: Detroit, MI
The File: Parsons won his only NASCAR Winston Cup championship in 1973. Won 20 NASCAR Winston Cup races and 20 poles. Made 526 starts in a 21-year career. Biggest wins were in the 1975 Daytona 500 and 1980 Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte. Was the first NASCAR Winston Cup driver to qualify at over 200mph for the 1982 Winston 500 at Talladega. Now a respected radio and television analyst of NASCAR Winston Cup racing.

Every time he'd win a race, Benny Parsons' past would become part of the story.

Here was a man who went from driving taxicabs in Detroit, Michigan, to racing on the NASCAR Winston Cup tour. But the story was incomplete.

Benny's father owned the taxi company. And, yes, Parsons would drive at times. But he did a lot of other things. But it was a good story - and Parsons was always a good story.

And if he wasn't providing one through his deeds on the track, he was telling them in the pits and garages. "Benny could get you laughing so hard you'd forget your other business," Neil Bonnett recalled. "He'd start spinning those yarns and you'd forget you had work to do."

It was only natural that after his driving career ended in 1988 that Parsons would be sought out by television to add hisfolksy stories and racing knowledge to telecasts of NASCAR Winston Cup racing.

"I loved driving," says Parsons. "But I have to admit that I might be better suited to what I'm doing today - talking."

Once again, Benny was right on the mark.