NASCAR Hall of Fame 5th Class Finalist - Benny Parsons, Driver

SEE ALSO: Complete List Of Finalists - Includes Official NASCAR Bio's and Pictures

Benny Parsons, a Wilkes County, N.C.-native who called Detroit home after driving a taxi for a living during his years in the northern city, won the 1973 NASCAR premier series championship in one of the most dramatic fashions in series history.

Parsons could be called an everyman champion: winning enough to be called one of the sport’s stars but nearly always finishing well when he wasn’t able to reach Victory Lane. He won 21 times in 526 career starts but finished among the top 10 283 times – a 54 percent ratio.

One of Parsons’ biggest victories came in the 1975 Daytona 500. He also was the first driver to qualify a stock car at more than 200 mph (200.176) in 1982 at Talladega Superspeedway. He was named one of NASCAR’s 50 Greatest Drivers in 1998.

Parsons also was known as a voice of the sport making a seamless transition to television following his NASCAR career. He was a commentator for NBC and TNT until his passing in 2007, at the age of 65.

 

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Statistics

Year Age Races Win Top 5 Top 10 Pole Laps Led Rank AvSt AvFn/td> RAF/td> Miles LLF 1964 23 1 of 62 0 0 0 0 258 0 130 9.0 21.0 0 129.0 0 1969 28 4 of 54 0 2 3 0 568 0 56 12.5 13.3 3 1259.0 0 1970 29 45 of 48 0 12 23 1 9165 66 8 10.0 13.7 24 8898.0 1 1971 30 35 of 48 1 13 18 0 7981 144 11 10.7 16.2 18 7808.9 4 1972 31 31 of 31 0 10 19 0 7922 19 5 11.2 14.5 20 9601.3 0 1973 32 28 of 28 1 15 21 0 9311 375 3 7.7 10.1 21 10274.1 1 1974 33 30 of 30 0 11 14 0 8120 88 7 8.6 14.6 14 9067.4 2 1975 34 30 of 30 1 11 17 3 8528 479 4 7.5 14.4 17 8984.4 4 1976 35 30 of 30 2 18 23 2 8679 509 3 7.0 9.6 25 10516.2 5 1977 36 30 of 30 4 20 22 3 9410 1400 3 4.7 7.8 24 10899.5 15 1978 37 30 of 30 3 15 21 2 9609 824 4 4.7 9.4 26 11009.9 9 1979 38 31 of 31 2 16 21 1 9335 736 5 7.0 11.3 24 10749.5 7 1980 39 31 of 31 3 16 21 2 8676 659 3 5.8 11.4 21 10134.7 11 1981 40 31 of 31 3 10 12 0 6709 537 10 10.1 19.0 14 7688.2 6 1982 41 23 of 30 0 10 13 3 5631 253 18 10.0 14.6 13 7377.0 6 1983 42 16 of 30 0 4 5 0 2847 116 29 8.9 18.9 7 5293.4 3 1984 43 14 of 30 1 7 10 2 2877 407 27 7.1 12.6 11 5462.4 7 1985 44 14 of 28 0 1 6 0 2230 8 29 10.4 21.3 7 4288.1 1 1986 45 16 of 29 0 2 4 1 2620 13 30 9.4 23.1 5 5112.0 3 1987 46 29 of 29 0 6 9 0 6975 87 16 11.7 18.7 17 9040.4 5 1988 47 27 of 29 0 0 1 0 7420 71 24 23.5 23.0 18 8843.9 1 21 years   526 21 199 283 20 134871 6791   9.4 15.2 329 162437.3 91