NASCAR Loses Colorful Champ
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Jan. 16, 2007 — -- NASCAR lost its second champion in less than two weeks when Benny Parsons died Tuesday. He was 65.
Parsons entered the Intensive Care Unit of the Carolinas Medial Center in Charlotte on Dec. 26 due to complications stemming from his battle with lung cancer.
Parsons, the 1973 Winston Cup champion, learned six months ago that he had cancer. He continued to work as a color analyst for NBC after learning about his condition, but missed a couple of races while undergoing treatment.
His death comes only nine days after NASCAR driver Bobby Hamilton, the 2004 Craftsman Truck Series champion, succumbed to cancer.
A member of NASCAR's 50 greatest drivers, Parsons retired from racing in 1988 and moved into the broadcasting booth with ESPN. He spent the past six years as a commentator on NBC and TNT, and continued to call races from the booth during his treatment.
Parsons, affectionately known throughout NASCAR as "BP," also continued to host a weekly radio program and keep fans updated on his condition in a blog on his web site.
"As my radiation oncologist told me today, John Wayne lived and had a great career with one lung. There is no reason why I can't do the same." Parsons posted in a Dec. 18th entry after learning of the damage to his left lung.
"It will take a little while for the right lung to pull the weight for the left lung so until then I will still need to use oxygen when I walk. I won't need it sitting or commentating races and to me that is the main thing.
"If given a choice between cancer or losing a lung I would say that I got the right end of the deal."
That feisty spirit was one of Parsons' trademarks, and what helped him rise up from a poor childhood in the foothills of North Carolina to a job driving taxis and then all the way to the top of NASCAR.
Parsons was born July 12, 1941 at his parents' rural home in Wilkes County and eventually moved to Detroit, where he worked at a gas station and a cab company owned by his father. After winning back-to-back ARCA titles in 1968-69, he returned to North Carolina in Ellerbe to become a full-time racer, often listing "taxicab driver" as his occupation on entry forms.
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