Not again.  Not two weeks in a row.

It isn't fair.  It's simply not fair to NASCAR Nation for two of its greatest ambassadors, Bobby Hamilton and Benny Parsons, to shuffle off their respective mortal coils so close to one another.  Complications from lung cancer treatments ended the life of NASCAR legend Benny Parsons this morning, just nine days after the same disease took the life of Bobby Hamilton.  It has been a tragic beginning to the year for NASCAR, with the loss of Parsons overshadowing, on a national scale, the loss of Hamilton.

I am too young to remember Benny's heyday as a racer.  I wasn't born yet when Parson won the Winston Cup in 1973, and wasn't even two years old when he earned the final of his 21 career victories in 1984.  Still, the tales of the taxi driver turned NASCAR racer from Detroit, Michigan have impacted many fans from my generation by allowing us to see Parsons as more than an average talking head.  Benny Parsons knew that the key to winning championships is finishing races, and his strategy of points-racing has become the dominant strategy in the Nextel Cup today.

I will remember Parsons most for his excellent TV work for ESPN/ABC, and later NBC/TNT.  There was nothing better than turning on the TV on a lazy Sunday afternoon and hearing the voices of Bob Jenkins, Ned Jarrett and Benny Parsons call the action of a Winston Cup race.  The chemistry between these three men was incredible, with the trio giving the impression of a genuine friendship.  I was greatly saddened when ESPN stopped covering NASCAR races in 2001, for the greatest broadcast booth in the sport was broken up.  Thankfully, Benny brought his insightful and informative brand of commentary over to NBC and TNT, and he was always welcome in my living room.  I always found Benny Parsons to be the perfect color commentator: he gave remedial information for the newcomers, more in-depth analysis for the hardcore fans, and always did so in an unbiased manner while displaying boatloads of both passion and class.  Too often it seems that today's sports commentators aren't even fans of the sports they broadcast.  Benny Parsons had great enthusiasm for the sport of NASCAR, and that enthusiasm made it easier for him to do an exceptional job of commentary.

NASCAR has lost another member of the old guard, another throwback to a bygone era.  It will be hard to replace Benny Parsons in the broadcast booth, even harder in NASCAR Nation, and impossible in the grand scheme of humanity.  As I did with Bobby Hamilton, I would like to conclude with a summary of Benny's greatest career accomplishments, courtesy bennyparsons.com:

• AUTOMOBILE RACING CLUB OF AMERICA ROOKIE OF THE YEAR in 1965 (ARCA)
• ARCA Champion 1968 and 1969
• First ARCA Champion inducted into The International Sports Hall of Fame
• Joined NASCAR in 1970
• First Winston Cup victory was at South Boston Virginia Speedway in 1971
• Winston Cup Champion in 1973
• Winner of Daytona 500 in 1975
• Joined ESPN as a RACE ANALYST in 1989
• ACE AWARD winner
• Inducted into The International Motor Sports Hall of Fame in December of 1994
• 1996 ESPN Emmy Award Winner
• Named one of the 50 Greatest Drivers in NASCAR History
• 21 Victories
• $3.9 million in Career Earnings
• Inducted into The Motor Sports Hall of Fame of America August 2006

Benny Parsons

July 12, 1941 - January 16, 2007