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NASCAR History: Car Number 35 and Benny Parsons

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by JamesJ, Special To NASCAR commentary and driver pictures, 2011 NASCAR schedule, video, Bench Racing With Steve and Charlie

Sundays of my youth consisted of NASCAR racing and cold bottles of Mountain Dew. Thirty years later not much has changed for me. However, nearly everything has changed in NASCAR.

January 10, 2010 7:15 am EST No Comments

Over the next several weeks we’ll be featuring car numbers in NASCAR history. We started with #50 and are working our way down the line. With each car number we’ll take a brief look at a couple stats related to the featured car number, but we’ll primarily spotlight either a driver, sponsor, car owner, manufacturer or other significant subject closely tied to the car number of the day.Benny Parsons car number 35

For car number 35 I’m going to touch on a driver who signed on with Hendrick Motorsports to be a relief driver for an ailing Tim Richmond. I really can not do this subject justice as it is impossible to convey in such a short post this man’s impact on the sport and just how greatly admired he was by competitors, fans, and everyone in between.

Stats for all cars running the #35:

  • Number of Races: 231
  • Number of Wins: 0
  • Number of Top 5s: 11
  • Number of Top 10s: 38
  • Number of Poles: 1

Check out current NASCAR race statistics here at On Pit Row!

Spotlight Subject: Driver Benny Parsons

So much could be wrote about Benny Parsons and it wouldn’t be fair to narrow it down to simply his races in any one car number, especially the #35 since it was a relatively short run. His best finishes in the #35 were three 2nd place runs. One of which came in the 1987 Daytona 500 where he would follow Bill Elliot to the checkers by three car lengths. But there’s so much more to the man’s career and influence in NASCAR. Sure, I can list his career stats such as 21 wins, 199 top fives, and 283 top tens. Or the fact that his driving career spanned 21 years and 536 races in which he won the 1973 Cup championship and the 1975 Daytona 500. I could also tell you how he was once a taxi cab driver for the company his father ran in Detroit, Michigan. Or perhaps the story how while working at a gas station he was pumping fuel for some customers who were taking a race car to the local track when they invited Benny to come out to the race. Alan Bestwick, Rusty Wallace and Benny ParsonsWhen he showed up at the track he learned that the scheduled driver for the car didn’t show up and Benny ended up driving the car in the race later that night.

Or maybe you’d find it interesting to know that he was so loved by his friends and the people of Wilkes County North Carolina, that he had a stretch of Highway 421 named the “Benny Parsons Highway” in his honor. But many of today’s race fans only remember Benny from his time in the broadcast booth from where he called the races after retiring from driving. And most all of us have fresh memories of January 2007 when we lost Benny Parsons to his battle with lung cancer. While it was in remission, his aggressive treatment of the ailment led to his death. Before his death at the end of the 2006 season, NASCAR Driver Benny ParsonsBenny won the Myers Brothers Award, honoring his contributions to racing.

All of these things are really just small highlights in the career of a man who really became a fan favorite for all generations. In the garage, he was admired by his fellow drivers and team members. To me, Benny just always seemed like a gentle giant. He was by far my favorite race analyst with his commentary delivered in such a smooth, intelligent, calm, and most of all genuine manner. When I think of all the stars in the sport that are or ever have been, I really got the impression that Benny would be the individual most easily approached by the common man. He seemed so real and down to earth, and despite all that he had accomplished and all the connections and influence he must have had, none of it seemed to go to his head. To me, he appeared very happy and appreciative of the position he held in the sport. From my perspective Benny was just one of those guys that if you knew him personally, you were very fortunate. And if you didn’t know him personally, you wished you did.

TNT Benny Parsons Tribute

Filed under: Dale Earnhardt Jr., James Jones, NASCAR, NASCAR History 

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