The Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series teams are preparing for the AAA 400 Drive for Autism at Dover International Speedway on Sunday, June 4th at 1 pm ET. Pre-Race coverage starts at 12:30 pm ET on FOX Sports 1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
In 400 laps, teams will race 400 miles with Stage 1 ending on lap 120, Stage 2 ending on lap 240 and lap 400 ending the last stage of the event. Continue reading →
1973: Benny Parsons inside his L. G. DeWitt-owned Chevrolet at a NASCAR Cup race. Parsons finished in the top-ten in 21 of 28 races and won the Volunteer 500 at the Bristol (TN) Motor Speedway on his way to winning the NASCAR Cup championship. Photo by ISC Images & Archives via Getty Images
A single word defined the late Benny Parsons: Beloved.
It mattered not whether you were fellow competitor, race fan or television viewer. Parsons was more than just a top premier series driver or broadcaster.
To race with him – or just to meet him – Parsons had the aura of being the best friend you wished you had.
Parsons became the NASCAR premier series champion in 1973. He won 21 times, a resume that included the 1975 Daytona 500.
“Benny didn’t win a lot of races – some thought he wasn’t ruthless enough – but few drivers won more friends and fans,” wrote Larry Woody in a 2014 Racin’ Today story.
“Ten minutes and you bonded with him,” said Rick Hendrick, whose Chevrolets Parsons drove in 1987.
Parsons, who died in 2007 at age 65, will be inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame in Charlotte, North Carolina on Friday (8 p.m. ET on NBCSN). His fellow inductees among the Class of 2017 include Hendrick, Richard Childress, Mark Martin and Raymond Parks. Continue reading →
Ryan Blaney and the Motorcraft/Quick Lane team are planning an encore presentation of their throwback theme first used at the Darlington Raceway earlier this season.
Blaney, at his own request, will wear the same uniform he wore during the Southern 500 to honor David Pearson.
At Talladega, he’ll wear the uniform in honor of both Pearson and the late Neil Bonnett, who was from Bessemer, Ala., and considered Talladega his home track.
Bonnett succeeded Pearson as driver of the iconic No. 21 midway through the 1979 season and used a uniform just like the one Pearson wore. Once aboard the No. 21, Bonnett won in his third start, at Dover International Speedway. He won twice more that season, at Daytona and Atlanta. Continue reading →
The Motorcraft/Quick Lane team, with rookie driver Ryan Blaney now at the wheel, will be back on the track at Dover International Speedway this weekend for the first time since 2008, when the team cut back to a partial Sprint Cup schedule.
For the Wood Brothers, it’s a return to one of the tracks where they had great success in years past.
The Woods won seven times at Dover over the years, beginning with their first trip there in the fall of 1972.
David Pearson led 350 of that race’s 500 laps to win by three laps over second-place Richard Petty. Pearson swept the Dover races in 1973, beating Cale Yarborough in the spring and Bobby Allison in the fall.
Pearson won two more, in the spring of 1975 and the spring of 1978. Continue reading →