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1968 and 1969 ARCA champion

1971 - First Nascar win, South Boston Speedway

1973 Winston Cup Champion

1974 to 1980 - never lower than fifth in the final points standings

1975 - Daytona 500 winner

1980 - World 600 winner, Charlotte

1984 - Coca Cola 500 winner, Atlanta

1998 - Named one of NASCAR's 50 Greatest Drivers

1994 - inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame

1994 - inducted into the Court of Legends at Lowe's Motor Speedway

2005 - inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America

Benny Parsons
NASCAR Winston Cup Career: 1964, 1969-88
Career Synopsis: This former taxi cab driver was the NASCAR Winston Cup Series champion in 1973. In total, he earned 21 NASCAR Winston Cup victories and started a race from the pole, twenty times in his career. Two of his biggest wins came at the 1975 Daytona 500 and the 1980 World 600 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway. Parsons was also the first NASCAR Winston Cup competitor to qualify for a race, faster than 200 mph. After retiring from competition after the 1988 season, Parsons went on to become a highly respected analyst on NASCAR racing telecasts, winning an NASCAR Emmy in 1996. He also hosted a nationally syndicated radio program on the Performance Racing Network . Parsons was inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1994.

Detailed Driving Career:
The 1960's
Parsons began his NASCAR career by running one race in 1964 for Holman-Moody. In 1968 and 1969, he won the ARCA championships. He competed in four NASCAR races in 1969, and had three top-10 finishes, driving for Russ Dawson.
The 1970's
He joined the 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 (Hampton, VA), and finished eighth in the points. He raced in the #72 L.G. DeWitt Racing Ford.
Parsons had 18 top-10 finishes in 35 starts in 1971, including his first win, at South Boston Speedway (South Boston, VA). He finished eleventh in the points. In 1972, still driving for DeWitt, he had 19 top-10 finishes, and drove in all 31 races that season. He finished fifth in the final points standings.
In 1973 he won the NASCAR Championship with only one win ((Bristol), even though David Pearson won eleven races that year. (Pearson however, only entered eighteen events). Parsons' consistency 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.
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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 28th 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.
1973 is considered the start of the modern era in NASCAR, so Parsons is considered the first modern era Champion. He also became the only person to win both the ARCA and NASCAR championships.
In 1974 and 1975, Parsons finished the season in 5th place and 4th place, respectively. He won the 1975 Daytona 500.

In 1976 and 1977, he won 6 more races and finished 3rd in the standings both years. In 1978, his last year with L.G. DeWitt, he placed 4th in the standings. He then switched to the #27 car, driving for M.C. Anderson starting in 1979.
The 1980's
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, Richmond and he won the final race ever run at College Station (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, 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 car owner Johnny Hayes. Parsons final career victory came in 1984 at the Coca-Cola 500 at Atlanta.
Parsons joined 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.
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" event held in Tucson, Arizona. All told, Biffle has already won a Craftsman Truck Series (2000), the Busch Series (2002) and has finished as high as 2nd in the Nextel Cup Series (2005).