Good Closing Record : Benny Parsons a Perfect Hunch Bet in Riverside’s Finale

Want a hunch bet for the final Winston Cup stock car race Sunday at Riverside?

Try Benny Parsons.

He’s a finisher--in a different manner of speaking.

When Ontario Motor Speedway closed in 1980, Parsons won the last race there, The Los Angeles Times 500.

When Texas World Speedway closed at College Station in 1981, Parsons won the last race there, too, the Budweiser 400.

Now it’s Riverside’s turn to close, and Parsons will be driving his Ford Thunderbird in the final race, another Budweiser 400.

“Wouldn’t that be something, to win the last race at Riverside, too,” Parsons said, smiling at the thought. “I hate to see this place close. I think all the stock car guys do, even though they hate it the first time they see it.”

Although the venerable old-timer from Ellerbe, N.C., hasn’t fared well this season, it’s not too far-fetched to consider seeing Parsons’ No. 90 around when the checkered flag falls late Sunday afternoon.

Parsons, who will be 47 Aug. 12, has won once here on the twisting 2.62-mile course with its series of linked turns called the esses--for years the only road-racing track where the oval-track veterans had to turn right. He won the NAPA 400 in 1978 while driving L. G. DeWitt’s Chevrolet Monte Carlo. It was his 21st start at Riverside.

“It took me a long time to get to the point where I could get around the track, but once I made it, I felt like I was more at home,” he said. “I didn’t enjoy it the first few times. I felt lost and embarrassed. But like I said, once I learned how, I’ve enjoyed coming here a lot.”

He also has finished second four times--officially--and third six times at Riverside. His most recent second-place finish was last November in the Winston Western 500 when he chased Rusty Wallace to the checkered flag.

Parsons’ best performance might have been his stirring drive to second place in 1984 but it is not in the record book. Neil Bonnett, who was in the thick of the battle for the national championship but whose wrist was in a cast as a result of an earlier accident, drove his Junior Johnson-prepared Chevy on the parade and pace laps, then pitted--about 100 yards past the start-finish line. When the green starting flag fell, Bonnett was climbing out of his car, making way for Parsons.

Parsons picked up the rear of the field and worked his way up to second behind Terry Labonte, but in the mysterious bookkeeping of NASCAR, only Bonnett got the points and only his name is listed as the second-place finisher. Once a driver starts, he gets all the credit, even if he only drives 100 yards down pit lane.

“You know, I can’t remember anything about the time I won at Riverside,” Parsons said. “The ones I remember are the ones that got away. I don’t even remember who finished second the day I won.”

It was Richard Petty, followed by Bobby Allison.

Parsons was 36 then and had been coming here for nine years. An 83-degree day created overheating problems for many of his competitors, including pole-sitter David Pearson and reigning national champion Cale Yarborough.

“Today we got the breaks we hadn’t been getting,” Parsons said at the time. “We stuck together for a change and it’s a great feeling.”

It’s a feeling that Parsons hasn’t had this season.

“Lousy is the only way I can describe how we’ve run so far,” he said. “We haven’t been able to find out what it takes to run good and finish. In the races where we ran strong, we didn’t finish. In the races we finished, we never seemed to get going. The car’s had an engine problem that seems to jump up around the 400- or 500-mile mark.”

This gives Parsons some hope for Sunday’s 400-kilometer race. It’s only 248.9 miles.

“At Atlanta, the engine gave out about 25 laps from finishing 500 miles, and in the World 600 at Charlotte we ran over 500 miles before it quit,” he said. “We’ll see what happens with a shorter race here. We won it once. Why not win it again?”

Parsons remembers his closing-out wins, even if they were nearly 10 years ago.

“I remember at Ontario, the wind was blowing like the dickens and there was sand all over the track,” he said. “And nobody seemed to notice that I’d won because all the interest was over whether Richard (Petty) could catch Darrell (Waltrip) for the championship. There was more people wanting to talk to Richard than there was interested in me.”

Petty finished fifth and won his seventh Winston Cup championship by 11 points over Waltrip, who finished eighth.

“But that was OK. I had the win and to be the last one ever at Ontario is something to remember. I still miss Ontario. It was the finest racing facility I’d ever seen. And now Riverside’s about gone.

“When’ll we ever get to Southern California again? This’ll be about the first time I can remember that we won’t be here in the fall.”

The annual fall race, the Winston Western 500, will be held on the mile oval at Phoenix International Raceway Nov. 6.

“When I won in Texas it was after a tough race with (Dale) Earnhardt. We were after each other all day and I managed to be there at the end. I’d sure like that feeling again Sunday. Any Sunday.”

Parsons has 21 NASCAR main event wins and was the Winston Cup champion in 1973, but he is in the midst of a long slump. He has not won in 83 straight races, dating back to the Coca Cola 500 on March 18, 1984, at Atlanta.