Benny Parsons was a true gentleman.

Benny Parsons, whose gentle nature made him a favorite among NASCAR fans as a broadcaster and whose competitive fire drove him from his father’s taxi company in Detroit to the championship in stock-car racing’s top division, died early Tuesday at Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte.

Parsons was diagnosed with lung cancer on July 13, one day after his 65th birthday. He missed a handful of races while having aggressive chemotherapy and radiation treatments shortly thereafter, but pressed on and was part of the NBC/TNT team that called the season’s final races.

“The Wednesday before the Bank of America 500 at Lowe’s Motor Speedway, I had another scan,” Parsons wrote in a story for the NBC Sports web site, referring to the October race at the Charlotte track. “My doctor couldn’t believe what he saw. ‘Remarkable!’ he told me. ‘Ninety-nine percent of the cancer is gone!’”

Just after the season, however, Parsons suffered trouble breathing and doctors put him on oxygen. Subsequent examinations found that his left lung had been badly damaged by the aggressive treatments. Then, just after Christmas, Parsons was hospitalized at Carolinas Medical Center and was later moved to intensive care as his condition deteriorated.

“The most unbelievable thing about this is that so many people are praying for me and thinking about me,” Parsons said in an interview after his diagnosis last summer. “It has been humbling.

“I’ve always made the mistake that when friends get sick, I know everyone is calling them so I figure I won’t call. That’s wrong. I can’t tell you how gratifying it has been to hear from friends and colleagues. You always wonder if you made a difference, if you were saying or doing something that meant something. All of this means to me that people have been listening.”

Parsons retired as a driver following the 1988 season. He won 21 races and 20 poles in 526 races in a career highlighted by his 1973 championship and victories in the 1975 Daytona 500 and the 1980 Coca-Cola 600.

He then went on to a second successful racing career as a television analyst, beginning full-time with ESPN in 1989 and continuing through the 2006 season.

“I love the people involved in racing, and the fact that I can still continue to be a part of it is fantastic,” Parsons said of the broadcasting portion of his career, during which he earned the nickname “The Professor” for the easy, affable tone with which he talked about the sport he loved.

“Benny is such a great role model,” Darrell Waltrip, another former champion who has turned to broadcasting, once said. “He’s such a sweet and patient man. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Benny Parsons mad about anything.”

He was born on July 12, 1941, in Wilkes County and raised by his great-grandmother on Rendezvous Ridge near the community called Parsonsville. In the past few years Parsons and his wife, Terri, were building a home near there and Parsons had begun a winery bearing the Rendezvous Ridge name.

Rest In Peace, Benny.

The Charlotte Observer has a nice slideshow of Benny’s career.

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