"Benny Parsons was the kindest, sweetest, most considerate person I have ever known," said Darrell Waltrip. "He was almost too nice to be a race car driver and I say that as a compliment.
In my 30 odd years of racing Benny Parsons, I never knew of anyone being mad at Benny.
Some of my fondest memories in racing were racing Benny. In the Coca Cola 600, we had a whale of a battle and it was one of the best races ever held at Charlotte.
One of the funniest was in the 1981, Bud Shootout. I passed Benny on the apron at the start-finish line to win the race. Benny said 'you can’t do that!' I said, 'I didn’t see any out-of-bounds markers!' You sure couldn’t do that today.
Benny Parsons was a great champion, a great ambassador for our sport but more than that, he was a great person. He exemplified that good guys can be winners too.
Stevie, the girls and I pray for Terri, Phil and the entire Parsons family to find the strength to get through this.” |
