Benjamin Stewart Parsons
Born	(1941-07-12)July 12, 1941 Wilkes County, North Carolina
Died	January 16, 2007(2007-01-16) (aged 65)
Cause of death	Complications resulting from lung cancer
Awards	1973 Winston Cup Champion 1968 and 1969 ARCA champion Named one of NASCAR's 50 Greatest Drivers (1998) inducted in the International Motorsports Hall of Fame (1994) inducted into the Court of Legends at Lowe's Motor Speedway (1994) inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America (2005) ESPN Emmy (1996) ACE Award (1989)
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series career
526 race(s) run over 21 year(s)
Best finish	1st - 1973 (Winston Cup)
First race	1963 (Mt. Clemens Speedway)
Last race	1988 Atlanta Journal 500 (Atlanta)
First win	1971 Halifax County 100 (South Boston)
Last win	1984 Atlanta 500 (Atlanta)
Wins Top tens Poles 21 283 20

Benjamin Stewart Parsons (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 Sprint Cup) champion.

He was nicknamed BP and The Professor, the latter in part because of his popular remarks and relaxed demeanor.

He was the founder of Rendezvous Ridge, a winery in North Carolina, which opened shortly after his death.

Before NASCAR[link]

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.^[1]

Driving career[link]

1960s[link]

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.

1970s[link]

He joined the NASCAR circuit full-time in 1970 with 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 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. His improbable return to the track after an early crash cemented his championship at Rockingham, North Carolina. He saw his championship hopes start to fade as he was involved in a lap 13 crash and his car was heavily damaged. He took to the pits to muster whatever he could out of the car and hope for a top five finish in the final standings. The rest of the garage was hoping to see the underdog unseat the mighty Richard Petty 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 points behind the champion.

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.

In 1979 at North Wilkesboro Speedway Bobby Allison led most of the race but in the final 150 laps, Darrell Waltrip caught Allison. The two hit together hard and Darrell nailed the front stretch wall. Waltrip began crowding off Allison under the caution and got black flagged for the crowding. Benny Parsons would win the race, but it would be his only win at the North Wilkesboro Speedway, a track which his wife Terri (married from 1992 until his death in 2007) would become an investor two years after his death.^[2]

1980s[link]

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 (322 km/h).

1983 racecar

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 Hendrick Motorsports in 1987 as a substitute for driver Tim Richmond, who was stricken with AIDS and would succumb in 1989. During the first lap of a race at Darlington Raceway, Parsons hit the wall and badly damaged his race car. He was able to continue, but had to make several pit stops for repairs. At one point, his crew chief, Harry Hyde refused to allow Parsons to pit because he and the crew were on an ice cream break. This incident was alluded to in the film, Days of Thunder. Another scene in the film was inspired by a real-life incident at Martinsville Speedway involving Parsons and the notoriously cantankerous Hyde: Hyde sarcastically told Parsons to hit the pace car on a restart because it was the only thing on the track Parsons had not hit.^[3]

Parsons raced in the #90 Bulls Eye Ford for Junie Donlavey in his final NASCAR season in 1988 and then moved to the broadcast booth, a position where he would remain until his death.

Parsons did climb into a race car a couple of other times, the first during the 2003 Old Dominion 500 as part of Wally's World segment and he drove a ceremonial victory lap at the last fall race at Rockingham in 2003 in a car similar to the one he won the championship with.

He is also credited for discovering current NASCAR Driver Greg Biffle at a "Gong Show" held in Tucson, Arizona.

Awards and statistics[link]

• Inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1994.
• Named as one of the NASCAR's 50 Greatest Drivers in 1998.
• Inducted into the Court of Legends at Lowe's Motor Speedway in 1994.
• Inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 2005.
• Had 283 top 10 finishes, led at least one lap in 192 races, and finished no lower than fifth in points between 1972 and 1980.^[4]

NASCAR announcer[link]

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 an ESPN Emmy in 1996, and the ACE Award in 1989. He appears in the videogame NASCAR '99, NASCAR 2000 & NASCAR 2001 as a commentator as well as an unlockable legend (He was only featured in NASCAR 2001 as an announcer). He later appeared in NASCAR Rumble as a legend in the game as well as NASCAR Thunder 2002, NASCAR Thunder 2003 & NASCAR Thunder 2004 as an unlockable driver and featured the game in NBC and TNT telecasts where Parsons did EA Sports Thunder Motion where he took viewers on a virtual ride of each track.

Parsons co-hosted coverage of Winston Cup Qualifying on North Carolina radio station WFMX with Mark Garrow in the early '90s. He continued to co-host a radio program called "Fast Talk" on Performance Racing Network (PRN) with Doug Rice until his death (he was replaced by an alternating host). 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 cameo appearance as himself in the movie Herbie: Fully Loaded. In 2006, he again appeared as himself in Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby.

Illness and death[link]

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. 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.^[5]

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.^[6] He is buried near his childhood home in Purlear, North Carolina, which is now the site of Benny Parsons' Rendezvous Ridge, which is also Terri's residence in addition to a racing museum and winery.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• Benny Parsons at Racing Reference
• Rendezvous Ridge, a Benny Parsons Vineyard (owned by his widow)
• Benny Parsons at NASCAR.com
• Benny Parsons at the International Motorsports Hall of Fame
• "Fast Talk with Benny Parsons" radio show
• "Talking with legends" USA WEEKEND, Feb. 19, 2006.

Charles Robert Hamilton, Sr.
Born	(1957-05-29)May 29, 1957 Nashville, Tennessee
Died	January 7, 2007(2007-01-07) (aged 49)
Cause of death	Head and neck cancer
Achievements	2004 Truck Series Champion
Awards	1991 Winston Cup Rookie of the Year
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series career
371 race(s) run over 15 year(s)
Best finish	9th - 1996 Winston Cup Series season
First race	1989 Autoworks 500 (Phoenix)
Last race	2005 Bass Pro Shops MBNA 500 (Atlanta)
First win	1996 Dura Lube 500 (Phoenix)
Last win	2001 Talladega 500 (Talladega)
Wins Top tens Poles 4 67 5
NASCAR Nationwide Series career
86 race(s) run over 12 year(s)
Best finish	11th - 1989 and 1990 Busch Series seasons
First race	1988 All Pro 300 (Charlotte)
Last race	2005 Federated Auto Parts 300 (Nashville)
First win	1989 Commonwealth 200 (Richmond)
Last win	1989 Commonwealth 200 (Richmond)
Wins Top tens Poles 1 22
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series career
102 race(s) run over 11 year(s)
Best finish	1st - 2004 Craftsman Truck Series season
First race	1996 Hanes 250 (Martinsville)
Last race	2006 John Deere 200 (Atlanta)
First win	2000 NAPA 250 (Martinsville)
Last win	2005 UAW-GM Ohio 250 (Mansfield)
Wins Top tens Poles 10 54 5

Charles Robert Hamilton, Sr. (May 29, 1957 – January 7, 2007) was a driver and owner in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series circuit and the winner of the 2004 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series (now Camping World Truck Series) championship. Hamilton owned Bobby Hamilton Racing, which fielded three entries in each NCWTS event. Hamilton's son, Bobby Hamilton, Jr., is currently a driver in the NASCAR Nationwide Series, and owns Bobby Hamilton Racing, yet he has disavowed his relationship with the team.^[1] Bobby's team shut down after the 2008 season due to the slumping economy.

Hamilton may be best remembered for two of his Winston Cup wins. His first career victory at the 1996 Dura Lube 500 at Phoenix was the first win for the #43 Petty car since Richard Petty's last win in 1984.^[2] He also had a memorable win at the Talladega 500 in April 2001 driving the #55 car for owner Andy Petree. The entire 500-mile race was run caution-free and was under intense scrutiny from both NASCAR and the media at large, being the first superspeedway race run since the death of Dale Earnhardt at the 2001 Daytona 500 two months earlier. A physically and mentally exhausted Hamilton slumped to the ground after exiting his car and was given oxygen from a tank before giving the standard post-race Victory Lane interview while sitting on the ground, leaning against the drivers door.

Short track roots[link]

Born in Nashville, Tennessee, Hamilton quit school at the age of thirteen^[3] and began his racing career at Nashville Speedway USA, now Music City Motorplex, racing on the weekly circuit at the legendary track, where he won the track championship in 1987. Hamilton began to be noticed within the NASCAR ranks after racing in a special four-car "Superstar Showdown" at Nashville in 1988 against Winston Cup drivers Sterling Marlin, Darrell Waltrip, and Bill Elliott.

NASCAR career[link]

[edit] Days of Thunder

Hamilton broke into the Winston Cup ranks in a very unusual way. He was asked to drive one of the "movie cars" for the 1990 film Days of Thunder, qualifying fifth in a movie car at the 1989 Autoworks 500 in Phoenix, in a car that was not intended to be competitive. The car was the #51 Exxon-sponsored machine, portrayed in the movie as being driven by the character Rowdy Burns.

In 2006, Kyle Busch, at the time a driver for Hendrick Motorsports, which fielded the movie cars, drove a Billy Ballew Motorsports truck in the Craftsman Truck Series featuring a "throwback" paint scheme visually echoing Hamilton's car from that movie. It was raced at Lowe's Motor Speedway in 2006, in support of Hamilton, who was undergoing cancer treatment. The name on top of the door on Busch's truck was listed by the nickname "Rowdy Busch" (clearly referencing the Rowdy Burns name on the original car), and won the event.

After Busch departed the team, BBM has kept the paint scheme, uniform design, and #51 for their Camping World Truck Series campaign as the reverse number to their regular #15.

1988-1994[link]

Hamilton made his NASCAR debut in the Busch Series in 1988 at Charlotte Motor Speedway driving his own #16 Chevrolet, finishing 14th. He ran the next race at North Carolina Speedway, finishing 20th. He drove full-time in 1989 driving the #8 Lighting & Fans Buick for FILMAR Racing. He finished 11th in points and won his only career Busch race at Richmond International Raceway. He also made his Winston Cup debut in a "Days of Thunder" car owned by Hendrick Motorsports. He led five laps but finished 32nd after an engine failure. He matched his 11th place points finish in 1990 with FILMAR, when he was promoted to Winston Cup full-time. He drove the #68 Country Time Lemonade Oldsmobile for Tri-Star Motorsports, posting four top-ten finishes and narrowly defeating Ted Musgrave for Rookie of the Year.

In 1992, he only had two top-tens and dropped to 25th in points. He began 1993 with Tri-Star but was released early in the season. He spent the rest of the season in the Cup and Busch Series, posting two top-tens for Akins-Sutton Motorsports. Hamilton also made 5 Busch series starts in the #05 Key Motorsports Chevrolet. In 1994, he joined SABCO Racing, driving the #40 Kendall Motor Oil Pontiac Grand Prix. He had just one top-ten finish and left at the end of the season.

1995-2002[link]

1997 racecar

For the 1995 season, Hamilton moved to Petty Enterprises to drive the #43 STP Pontiac. He posted ten top-tens and moved up to fourteenth in the final standings. The next season, he finished a career-best 9th in the standings and won his first race at Phoenix. He also formed his own Craftsman Truck Series team and began competing in the series part-time. He won in 1997 at Rockingham, but departed the team after falling to 16th in points.

He signed with Morgan-McClure Motorsports in 1998, and in their eighth race together, he won from the pole at Martinsville Speedway. He ended the season tenth in the points. He had another ten top-ten finishes the following season, but after falling to 30th in points in 2000, he left for Andy Petree Racing, drive the #55 Square D Chevy. He won his final career race at Talladega and finished 18th in the standings. He posted three top-tens in 2002, but suffered a broken shoulder late in the season, causing him to miss several races.

Craftsman Truck Series[link]

Due to the injury as well as an unstable financial situation at Petree Racing, Hamilton left the Winston Cup Series for the Truck Series driving for his own team, taking the Square D sponsorship with him. Driving the #4 Dana Dodge Ram Hamilton picked up two wins in his first year on the circuit and finished sixth in points. The following season, he picked up four wins and clinched the championship, marking the first time since Alan Kulwicki's championship in 1992 that an owner-driver won a NASCAR championship. He switched to the #04 in 2005 and won an additional two races on his way to another sixth-place points finish.

He drove the #18 Fastenal Dodge for three races in 2006, but was diagnosed with cancer and never raced again, with his son finishing out the season.

Illness and death[link]

On March 17, 2006, Hamilton announced that he had been diagnosed with neck cancer.^[4] He took part in the Craftsman Truck Series race that night, before starting therapy the following Monday.

Kyle Busch paid tribute to Hamilton two months later for the Truck race at Lowe's Motor Speedway by driving a truck painted to resemble the Rowdy Burns car in Days of Thunder, complete with the #51 and "Rowdy" decals, a tribute that Busch continues today in late model and truck racing.

Hamilton returned to the track for the race at Kentucky Speedway, overseeing his team's operations. Knowing he would not be well enough to drive in 2007, he hired Ken Schrader to drive his #18 Fastenal Dodge for the full 2007 schedule while Hamilton was to continue his cancer treatment. Hamilton died of neck cancer on January 7, 2007, at his home in Mt. Juliet, Tennessee with his family by his side. He also died the day before his son's 29th birthday.^[5]

References[link]

• Bobby Hamilton at racing-reference.info
• Even with cancer battle, Hamilton still has grit
• Hamilton Racing To Recovery

External links[link]

• Official Website
• Fastenal Racing Official Website

Bob Jenkins (born September 4, 1947) is an American television and radio sports announcer with NBC Sports Network, also known for his work at ABC and ESPN^[1] calling IndyCar and NASCAR telecasts. He is currently the lead commentator for the IndyCar Series on NBC Sports Network. He announced on NBC Sports Network's telecast of 2012 Indy 500 Carb Day on 5/25/2012 that he will retire from broadcasting after the 2012 Izod Indycar Series season finale due to his wife's Pam's ailing health due to her having brain cancer. ^[2]

Announcing career[link]

ESPN and ABC[link]

Bob Jenkins was born in Richmond, Indiana and grew up in the nearby town of Liberty. He was one of the original cornerstone anchors on ESPN when it debuted in 1979,^[2][3] working there as one of the most senior members of the network until 2003. His primary duty was anchoring NASCAR on ESPN from 1979-2000 with Ned Jarrett and Benny Parsons. The trio was one of the most popular announcing crews in NASCAR. By the early 1990s, the crew (sans Jarrett, who was contracted with CBS) would also cover races on ABC Sports. During the 1980s, Jenkins also occasionally called CART races on ESPN, prior to the arrival of veteran Paul Page.

Jenkins hosted the weekly racing magazine show Speedweek during most of his tenure at ESPN. Jenkins was the television announcer of the Brickyard 400 on ABC from 1994-2000.

Concurrent to his work on ESPN & ABC, from 1979–1998, Jenkins worked on the IMS Radio Network.^[2] He reported various positions including the backstrech, turn four, and served as chief announcer of the Indy 500 from 1990-1998.

By 1999, Jenkins quit the radio crew to focus on television full-time. The ongoing IRL/CART split forced changes in the announcing crews at ESPN/ABC. In addition, ESPN/ABC would be losing NASCAR rights at the end of the season. Paul Page was assigned to the CART series broadcasts, and Jenkins was moved exclusively to the chief announcing position of the IRL and Indianapolis 500 broadcasts. The arrangement would continue through 2001.

For 2002, with CART floundering, Page was moved back to the IRL, and Jenkins was shifted to the lesser host position. The arrangement created a "crowded" booth with two veteran announcers. In 2003, on Bump Day at the Indy 500 on ESPN, Jenkins made an impassioned commentary, defending the event from media detractors.^[4] Many were ridiculing the race and the IRL for struggling to fill the field to the traditional 33 cars.

At the end of the 2003 season, Jenkins was released from ABC/ESPN.

Bob announced his retirement (effective at the end of the 2012 Season) on May 25, 2012 at the conclusion of Indy 500 Carb Day.

Prior ABC/ESPN[link]

Co-anchor for nationally syndicated farm news show, "AgDay".

Post ABC/ESPN[link]

After being released from ABC/ESPN in 2003, Jenkins joined the Indianapolis Motor Speedway staff in various roles including public address announcer and designated emcee of various events and press gatherings (such as the Victory Banquet, Last Row Party, and press conferences). In 2004, he had a short stint as an announcer for Champ Car on Spike TV^[2] but was soon fired by the production company. He joined SPEED and was an anchor for Speed News for a little over one year. Jenkins has also been a contributor to WIBC radio in Indianapolis.

In June 2006, Jenkins was released from his contract with SPEED. According to Jayski's Silly Season Site, in early 2006 Jenkins became the communications director for the Premier Racing Association.^[5]

In July 2006, he was the chief announcer of the IMS Radio Network for the U.S. Grand Prix. In 2007, he was the announcer of Indy Pro Series broadcasts on ESPN2. He anchored the Allstate 400 on the radio, his first NASCAR race call since November 2000. For 2007-2008, he returned to the IMS Radio Network for the Indy 500, reporting from the turn two position.

In 2008, Jenkins returned to the ESPN booth for two IndyCar races, the Rexall Edmonton Indy and the Nikon Indy 300 in Surfers Paradise. Regular play-by-play announcer Marty Reid was unable to broadcast because of prior engagements.

NBC[link]

In 2009, the IndyCar Series started a new television contract with Versus. Jenkins was signed as the chief announcer, and returned to Indy racing full-time for the first time since 2001. He opted out of reprising his turn two role on the radio network, because Versus was hosting a post-race show, and Jenkins would not have time to arrive at the studio in time. Jenkins, however, did record segments for air on the radio broadcast, as all three living "Voices of the 500" (Page, Jenkins, and King) participated in the broadcast.

In 2011, Jenkins continued at NBC Sports Group. During the month of May, and on race day at Indianapolis, he continued his part-time work on the public address announcing team. He announced on 2012 Indianapolis 500 Carb Day airing on 5/25/2012 that he in a tearful voice that he will retire from broadcasting after the IZOD Indycar Series Season Finale in Fontana California in September. He is leaving to help take care of his wife Pam who's health is ailing due to her having brain cancer. He will continue on doing work at Indianapolis Motor Speedway including PA announcing.

Movie credits[link]

Jenkins also has three movie credits, one of which was an on-camera appearance. In order to be realistic, the race announcers in the movie Days of Thunder were the actual ESPN crew of the time, which meant Jenkins was the announcer in several voice-over scenes. While at Speed Channel in 2005, he was the Speed anchor in Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby. He also did voice over work in the movie Kart Racer.

His voice was used in the EA Sports NASCAR video game series, from NASCAR 98 to NASCAR 2001, the Codemasters video game IndyCar Series and IndyCar Series 2005 as well as the Destineer Games video game Indianapolis 500 Evolution.

His most recent work can be heard in the trailer for the independent film Trifocals (March, 2007).

Personal life[link]

Jenkins is a colon cancer survivor^[3] and resides in the Indianapolis area with his wife Pam.

References[link]

External links[link]

• The Official Site of Bob Jenkins