Conversation: Benny Parsons

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- TNT/NBC NASCAR commentator Benny Parsons says he can't wait to begin the network's coverage of the second half of what he considers the most significant season in NASCAR history.

NBC began the 2004 Nextel Cup Series with its telecast of the season opening Daytona 500, and then per the current TV agreement FOX Sports took over the remainder of the first half.

	Benny Parsons (far right with broadcast colleagues Wally Dallenbach, center, and Allen Bestwick) says he's really looking forward to the first Chase for the Nextel Cup.

This weekend's Tropicana 400 at Chicagoland Speedway is the ninth race before the cutoff at race 26 to determine the 10 men that will compete in the Chase for the Nextel Cup.

Before he left for North Carolina, and then Chicago, Parsons visited Daytona International Speedway to take part in groundbreaking ceremonies for a $50 million infield upgrade program.

He sat down with NASCAR.com senior writer Dave Rodman to discuss his best Daytona memory, the significance of the Daytona project, NASCAR's loss of credibility and of course, the Chase for the Nextel Cup.

Q: As a Cup championship winning driver, winner of the Daytona 500 and a longtime broadcaster, you have a lot of memories of Daytona. But I understand your history here goes back to before you won the ARCA race here?

Benny Parsons: Well, the best memory of all is just hanging on that fence outside the garage area. In 1963 I came to Daytona for the first time, with a couple of guys from Detroit.

I had become a huge race fan and had been going to the races with some guys that were running the ARCA series up in the Midwest. I didn't know a soul (in Daytona), and couldn't get in the garage area.

But I would buy my infield ticket for three or four dollars -- whatever it was to come in -- and just hang on the fence and watch those cars being pushed by. I would've paid anything I had in my pocket just to push -- you know, (Fred) Lorenzen's car and Ned Jarrett's car and Fireball's (Roberts) car.

I guess the statute of limitations has run out, so I can tell this story. We were staying at the same hotel as H.B. Bailey, a driver from (Houston), and his wife. She slipped me a pit pass, so I got in for about two hours one day. It was the highlight of my life (as a 21-year-old), getting inside the garage area and getting close to those racecars.

Q: In the large scheme of things, how significant is this upgrade project they're doing at Daytona, with a new tunnel, new garages and new fan amenities?

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Benny Parsons: I think it's big. When you talk about the Daytona 500 and you say it's the biggest thing going in stock car racing, which it is, and some stranger or someone comes to this facility and looks at it, and sees these buildings that are over 45 years old, it doesn't look spectacular.

Again, as race fans, what happens on the racetrack is what makes it spectacular or not -- but just as a novice walking in and seeing this, they would not think of anything being so great, when you look at all these old buildings that are here, now.

Now, when they walk in and see all this new stuff and are able to share the experience and see the cars and the guys working on the cars, I think they'll get a full grasp of what's going on around here.

Q: Some people think this is another case of eliminating the "common fan," but might it be more a case of staying in step with the times and broadening people's opportunities?

Benny Parsons: You have to do that. Again, 100 years ago a lot of people lived without electricity and in cabins and everything else. I grew up in a cabin in North Carolina -- I don't want to go back to that.

Today, I dare say that most all Americans have electricity and indoor plumbing. They just came up with the times. And the same thing is happening here. They are building racetracks around the country that put Daytona to shame as far as amenities go.

And how can you have your biggest race (here) and not have all the amenities that Kansas Speedway has? I mean, that's a fabulous facility and you've just got to march in tune with all the folks around the rest of the country.

Q: How would you categorize the current crop of NASCAR fans?

Benny Parsons: We have a wide variety of folks that are fans of our sport. We have the beer drinkers, but we also have the wine and cheese people.

I think that's one reason that NASCAR wants that track up in New York City so badly, is to really bring in the urban America. We've got suburban America, now we need urban America.

Q: NBC did the Daytona 500 to start the season; now TNT/NBC is ready to kick off its second half coverage at Chicagoland. How much anticipation is there among you and your crew?

Benny Parsons: I just can't wait to see what's going to happen on our Chase for the Nextel Cup. I just can't wait because right now, we know the top-10 right now. But it could change each and every week.

All of a sudden, the guy's in and he's going to be competing for $5 million and the first Nextel Cup. But next week, he might not be in.

And those guys that are up to 15th, if they put on a phenomenal next six, seven races, they can make it. They can race their way in, and I just think it's gonna be so exciting.

Q: There were a lot of skeptics when this championship format was announced. But now as we get down to the last nine races before the top-10 cutoff, do we in effect get two climaxes to the season and a spectacular situation all the way around?

Benny Parsons: I think so. Again, I think that if we don't have a lot of anticipation of that 26th race and who's going to qualify (for the Chase), I will be very disappointed.

And that last two or three races of the season, if we don't have larger audiences than we've had previously and we don't have some excitement because of the drama of who's going to win the first Nextel Cup, I will be very disappointed.

Q: Of the next nine races leading up to Richmond, which is the cutoff point as the 26th race of the season, do you see one of those being any more critical than another, potentially, for guys trying to make it, or stay in the top 10?

Benny Parsons: Well, Watkins Glen and Bristol would be, I think. Watkins Glen is a mechanical exercise and it's just so difficult to go around that road course, doing all the shifting you have to do, not miss a shift, not get off the track and lose a couple laps by getting stuck in the gravel pit and what have you?

I just think you could have a huge reversal of fortune at Watkins Glen, and Bristol -- let's face it, anything can happen there. And it usually does.

Q: Obviously the broadcast teams for FOX and TNT/NBC are different personalities and have different presentations. You have an interesting perspective that holds that the drivers are the stars -- not the broadcasters, don't you?

Benny Parsons: I've always said this. My example is, and I heard someone say this one time and I thought it was fabulous. He said, 'everyone can't be stars. Someone has to sit on the sidewalk and clap as they go by.'

We announcers on TV that talk about sports are simply the people sitting on the sidewalk clapping as the parade goes by. We are no longer the stars. The guys on the racetracks and in football and basketball games -- those are the stars.

We're simply there to talk about the stars. It's going to be the same thing. NBC, TNT we're going to talk about the stars, as simple as that.

Q: With NASCAR's recent procedural difficulties and the perception that Tony Stewart's penalty for his altercation with Brian Vickers in Sonoma wasn't a penalty at all, has NASCAR taken a bigger hit in the public eye or in the garage area?

Benny Parsons: I think they've taken a big hit in the public eye. Inside the garage area I don't know what kind of hit they've taken, but I think perception amongst the fans is something they're really struggling with right now.

And that was the biggest disappointment on the Tony Stewart deal. They had a chance to say 'it's not about the money.' And again, I don't know all the details and I shouldn't make an opinion before I do have all the details.

But if Tony did lay his hands on Brian Vickers, as (Jimmy) Spencer did (to Kurt Busch in 2003), then he probably should have had the same penalty as Spencer did.

But since he didn't, well, all the fans are saying now, 'it's all about the money. In NASCAR, it's all about the money.' I just think they lost a tremendous amount of credibility by not issuing the same penalty they did with Spencer.

Q: Of the drivers not currently in the top 10 in the standings, who do you feel like has the best opportunity to get into the top 10 for the Chase for the Nextel Cup?

Benny Parsons: Probably Kasey Kahne, because he has shown throughout the year that he has a very good race car. He runs well on a track like Chicago. He did at Las Vegas, so I don't know why he wouldn't at Chicago.

I think he'll be very good at a track like Loudon, New Hampshire. At Pocono, he did not run well up there the first race, but that's a very unique racetrack and I didn't expect him to run too well.

But I think he probably learned a great deal, so he'll be good at Pocono. Indy, Bill Elliott ran so well over the years there that I think he'll be a great help to Kasey.

The road course at Watkins Glen, I think will be his only struggle. And as I said at Bristol, anything can happen to anybody, but at Watkins Glen will be Kasey's biggest struggle.

Q: Down that 10-race Chase for the Nextel Cup, which event do you think might be the most telling? Might it be Talladega, because of the nature of the racing?

Benny Parsons: Yeah, it probably is, because there again, if you have a long pit stop and you get back in the pack and they have the big crash, you can be in it. Let's face it, at Daytona in the Pepsi 400 they had the making of the big one, but the cars at Daytona had strung out so much that you didn't have it.

At Talladega, that doesn't happen. The cars are all in a wad and if something like that happens, you're going to eliminate more than four cars.

Q: In a lot of respects, do you feel like this is the most significant NASCAR Cup season ever, with this new championship format?

Benny Parsons: I think so. I think that first of all, at the end of race 26, NASCAR is going to take away -- right now, what is it, a 200-point lead that Jimmie Johnson has?

As we speak, (Kevin) Harvick is in 10th place and he's 450 points out (of first). At the end of race 26, if everything remains the same, he'll be 50 points out. So all of a sudden he goes from no chance to having an unbelievable chance to be the first Nextel Cup champion.

And if he were to do that a lot of folks would say, 'well, that's not fair.' That he would be 450 point back but go on to win the Nextel Cup. My only reply to that would be that a baseball team can win 100 games -- a football team can win all 16 games that they play.

That still doesn't say they're going to win the Super Bowl or the World Series. The same thing holds true in racing. We need that drama the last 10 races of the year and I think that right now, we've got five or six drivers that have to race for points -- the guys that are on the bubble for that top-10.

But everybody else can go out and try to win the race, and I think that's spectacular.

Q: Taking history into account, who do you think is the favorite to win this first Nextel Cup championship? Or with the format, is it impossible to tell?

Benny Parsons: it is impossible to tell. I mean, right now Jimmie Johnson is on a roll. If you go back the last 10 races, I mean, he would easily be the Nextel Cup champion.

But, can he keep it going for 36 races? Will one of his tire changers sprain his ankle, and all of a sudden his pit stops will not be that 13-second stop that you have to have any more in Nextel Cup racing.

You know, can he keep what he has for the next few races? And no one knows the answer to that.