Bad week for Nascar and it's fans

[Bufflehead]

NASCAR champ, commentator Parsons dies
 
 
 
 
 CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) - Benny Parsons, a former taxi driver turned NASCAR champion, died Tuesday from complications stemming from his short battle with lung cancer, his son Keith said. He was 65.

Parsons, the 1973 NASCAR champion, died in Charlotte, N.C., where he had been hospitalized since Dec. 26.
 
A member of NASCAR's 50 greatest drivers, Parsons retired from racing in 1988 and moved into the broadcasting booth. He spent the past six years as a commentator on NBC and TNT, and continued to call races from the booth during his treatment.

"Benny was a beloved and widely respected member of the NASCAR community, and of the NBC Sports family," said Dick Ebersol, chairman of NBC Sports.

"He was a great driver and a terrific broadcaster, but above anything else he was a kind and generous human being. His character and spirit will define how he is remembered by all of us. Benny will be sorely missed."

Parsons was diagnosed with cancer in his left lung in July after complaining of difficulty breathing. A former smoker who quit the habit in 1978, Parsons underwent intensive chemotherapy and radiation treatments and was declared "cancer-free" in October.

But the aggressive treatment cost Parsons the use of his left lung, and he was hospitalized Dec. 26 when doctors found a blood clot in his right lung. He was transferred to intensive care shortly after his admission, and he remained there in an induced-coma.

Parsons, affectionately known throughout NASCAR as "BP," also continued to host a weekly radio program and kept fans updated on his condition in a blog on his web site.

"As my radiation oncologist told me today, John Wayne lived and had a great career with one lung. There is no reason why I can't do the same." Parsons posted in a Dec. 18th entry after learning of the damage to his left lung.

"It will take a little while for the right lung to pull the weight for the left lung so until then I will still need to use oxygen when I walk. I won't need it sitting or commentating races and to me that is the main thing.

"If given a choice between cancer or losing a lung I would say that I got the right end of the deal."

That feisty spirit was one of Parsons' trademarks, and what helped him rise up from a poor childhood in the foothills of North Carolina to a job driving taxis and then all the way to the top of NASCAR.

He remained popular both with the fans and the current NASCAR community, which had rallied in support of Parsons during his battle. Michael Waltrip came to preseason testing at Daytona International Speedway this week with "We Love You BP" painted on the side of his car.

And Parsons was always on the lookout for new talent, and proved to have a keen eye for it when he discovered Greg Biffle and pushed car owner Jack Roush to hire him sight unseen. Biffle went on to win championships in NASCAR's Truck and Busch Series and is now a top-level Nextel Cup driver.

"It's obvious he's the only reason why I am here in this sport; I would still be in Washington racing local stuff if not for BP," Biffle said. "It seems like this cancer thing ... it's just evil stuff. He told me upfront that it was pretty aggressive cancer, but they caught it real quick and that they were on top of it."

Parsons' death comes eight days after former Truck Series champion Bobby Hamilton lost his battle with cancer.

Parsons was born July 12, 1941 at his parents' rural home in Wilkes County and eventually moved to Detroit, where he worked at a gas station and a cab company owned by his father. After winning back-to-back ARCA titles in 1968-69, he returned to North Carolina in Ellerbe to become a full-time racer, often listing "taxicab driver" as his occupation on entry forms.

Parsons made 526 starts from 1964 until his 1988 retirement. He won 21 races, including the 1975 Daytona 500, and 20 poles. He was also the first Cup competitor to qualify for a race faster than 200 mph when he posted a lap at 200.176 mph at the 1982 Winston 500 at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway.

Parsons ended his career with 283 top-10 finishes, led at least one lap in 192 races and finished no lower than fifth in the points from 1972 to 1980 while earning more than $4 million. He also won back-to-back ARCA titles in 1968-69 when he lived in Detroit, before getting his shot at NASCAR.

His 1973 championship season was built on endurance and consistency: He won only one of the 28 races that season, while second-place finisher Cale Yarborough won four times and David Pearson won 11. But Parsons finished the most miles that year to claim the crown.

He was named one of NASCAR's 50 greatest drivers in 1998, and was inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1994. He was inducted into the National Motorsports Press Association's Stock Car Racing Hall of Fame in 1995.

Parsons began his broadcasting career in the 1980s as a pit reporter for ESPN and TBS, when he was still racing a partial schedule. He moved into the booth for good in 1989 for ESPN and won a Cable ACE Award for best sports analyst.

Survivors include his wife, Terri, and two sons by his late wife - Kevin and Keith, a former sports writer for The Associated Press, and two granddaughters.

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 Nascars Bobby Hamilton dies at age 49 from Cancer

 NASHVILLE, Tenn. Jan 8, 2007 (AP)— Bobby Hamilton paid his early bills driving a wrecker, got his NASCAR break driving a car used in "Days of Thunder" and won the 2004 Craftsman Truck championship in his own truck.

Following his death Sunday of cancer at the age of 49, Hamilton was remembered for his love of the sport, kindness and blue-collar persona.

Nextel Cup driver Sterling Marlin, a fellow Tennessee native, said Sunday night that a lot of people didn't get to know Hamilton well, but that the driver who started with nothing and never had the best equipment would be missed.

"He would give you the shirt off his back, and he helped me out a lot through the years," Marlin said.

Born in Nashville in 1957, Hamilton got his start on local tracks and qualified fifth in his first Cup race at Phoenix in 1989 with a car used in the movie "Days of Thunder." He drove in all of NASCAR's top three divisions, making 371 Cup starts and winning four races in what is now the Nextel Cup series, including the 2001 Talladega 500.

The death was shocking to people who had not seen him recently. His racing team announced only last month that Ken Schrader would drive its truck this season.

"NASCAR is saddened by the passing of Bobby Hamilton," said Jim Hunter, NASCAR's vice president of communications. "Bobby was a great competitor, dedicated team owner and friend. Our thoughts and prayers go out to all of the Hamilton family."

Hamilton won 10 times in the truck series, including four victories in 2004 when he became the first owner-driver to win a NASCAR series title since the late Alan Kulwicki won the Winston Cup championship in 1992.

"I think at the end of the Cup deal, he was burnt out on the system. But he always had a good vision," Marlin said. "He always wanted to do things his own way, so he became his own boss, got into trucks, and it worked out well for him."

Hamilton was diagnosed in February with head and neck cancer. A malignant growth was found when swelling from dental surgery did not go down.

 He raced in the first three truck races of the season, with a best finish of 14th at Atlanta Motor Speedway, before turning over the wheel to his son, Bobby Hamilton Jr. The senior Hamilton then started chemotherapy and radiation treatment.

Liz Allison, widow of former NASCAR star Davey Allison, co-hosted a local radio show with Hamilton that started in January 2006.

"The thing I loved about Bobby Sr. so much is that he treated everybody the same. It didn't matter if you were one of the drivers he competed against or a fan he'd never laid eyes on before," Allison said.

"He didn't have a pretentious bone in his body. I think that's why people were drawn to him. He was just very real and had a way of relating to everyone."

His son also replaced him on the radio show to fulfill his obligation.

By August, he returned to work at Bobby Hamilton Racing in Mount Juliet, about 20 miles east of Nashville. It was his fourth race shop, a facility lacking for nothing and built to prove he could stay in Tennessee and compete in a place he kept so clean he often walked around barefoot.

Doctors indicated his CAT scans looked good. But microscopic cancer cells remained on the right side of his neck.

"Cancer is an ongoing battle, and once you are diagnosed you always live with the thought of the disease in your body," Hamilton said in an article posted on NASCAR's Web site last month. "It is the worst thing you could ever imagine."

That was about as much as Hamilton shared with anyone outside his family and close friends.

"I love what I do; I love this business," he said in March 2006 when disclosing he had cancer. "NASCAR has been good to me, and I just don't feel comfortable when I am not around it."

Hamilton's Nextel Cup wins, in addition to Talladega, came at Phoenix, Rockingham and Martinsville. His best season was in 1996 when he finished ninth in the season standings. He won his first Cup race that year, at Phoenix.

Hamilton drove in the top-level NASCAR series from 1989-05, earning $14.3 million and racing to 20 top-five finishes.

 He became a full-time driver-owner in the truck series in 2003.

Another NASCAR favorite, 1973 Winston Cup champion Benny Parsons, was diagnosed with cancer in his left lung in July. He was checked into intensive care last week at a North Carolina hospital.

In addition to Bobby Jr., Hamilton is survived by wife Lori and a granddaughter.

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 RIP you two, I spent many a Sunday watching Nascar and these two will truly be missed