It’s no secret that Bill Elliott is one of the great NASCAR drivers of all time. Father to Chase Elliott, Bill is a former Cup Series champion and a two-time winner of the Daytona 500. He recorded his first win in the Cup Series back in the 1983 Winston Western 500 at Riverside. However, Elliott was lucky to earn that victory, as per Andy Petree.

Petree is currently the Executive Vice President at Richard Childress Racing. Earlier on in his career, the 65-year-old used to be a lot closer to the on-track action. He used to be a driver and later transitioned into a crew chief and then a team owner. One of his first jobs was at Johnny Hayes Racing where he worked with Benny Parsons.

RCR executive reveals experience of working with Benny Parsons

On a recent episode of the Fast Car 2 NASCAR podcast, the current RCR executive spoke about his early days in the sport with Parsons and was full of praise for him. The man Bill Elliott had beaten to earn his first-ever Cup Series win was Benny Parsons. Petree took a trip down memory lane as he reminisced about the first year he worked with Parsons.

“Travis Carter, who was running the team for Harry Gant, he prepped the car, the first one. Then he hauled it to Michigan for the first race and that’s where I met Leo Jackson,” Petree said.

“We go up there to Michigan with me and Leo… just a handful of guys that had been doing the Xfinity thing and we finished 5th I think in the first race. I think we finished in the top 5 every one we ran that year with Benny. I mean Benny was a heck of a driver,” he added.

Benny Parsons had the chance to win his first race for Johnny Hayes Racing in the final race of the season. However, Bill Elliott proved to be the one to break his hopes as he edged out what some may call a lucky victory at Riverside in 1983.

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How Bill Elliott edged out his first Cup Series win

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In the 1983 season, Benny Parsons earned four top-5 finishes, which was not a bad result at the time. However, it could have been a lot better had he won at Riverside. Petree recalled just how close Parsons had come to getting the job done.

“It might have been the last race of the year in ‘83. We went to Riverside. We put a lot of effort in that car and if you remember how that race finished…it was Darrell Waltrip and Tim Richmond racing for the lead and right at the end of the race it was raining. It looked like we were coming to the caution flag for rain and it looked like it would probably end the race and they ended up crashing. And Benny comes across and gets the lead. I felt like we’d won,” he said.

“We ran a lap or so under caution and then it stopped raining long enough and we went for one lap and Bill Elliott passed Benny going into turn 9 coming that caution again for rain and ended up being the winner. That was his first win, Bill Elliott’s first win,” Petree added.

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Elliott would go on to achieve great things later on but that first race win could not have come sooner. Regardless, Parsons is a NASCAR champion himself and is well-respected by the racing community.