Remembering Parnelli Jones (1933-2024)
Parnelli Jones signing autographs at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, 1967. / THF144849
Auto racing lost a legend, and The Henry Ford lost a friend, when Parnelli Jones passed away on June 4, 2024. Rufus Parnell Jones (an aunt gave him his lifelong nickname, “Parnelli”) was born August 12, 1933, in Texarkana, Texas. His family moved to the Los Angeles area when he was young, and he grew up immersed in the racing and rodding culture of Southern California. Jones was building his own hot rods by age 17 and racing on local and regional tracks soon thereafter.
Early on, Jones distinguished himself with a brash, aggressive style behind the wheel. This, and a Midwest sprint car title Jones clinched in 1960, caught the attention of promoter J.C. Agajanian who gave Parnelli his ticket to the big time. Jones made his Indianapolis 500 debut in 1961, finishing in a respectable 12th place. The following year, he set a qualifying-speed record of 150.370 miles per hour. One year after that, in 1963, Jones won the race.
Parnelli Jones and his teammates at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 1963. J.C. Agajanian is in the suit and cowboy hat. / THF114555
Parnelli Jones’s Indy win was not without controversy. It came during a time of rapid change at the Indianapolis as 1963 brought the first appearance of the rear-engine Lotus-Ford cars and ace Scottish driver Jim Clark. For much of the race, Jones, who’d won the pole position with the fastest qualifying time, battled with Clark and Dan Gurney, who also piloted a rear-engine Lotus-Ford. Clark and Gurney were quicker through the turns with their lithe Formula One-inspired cars, but Jones’s traditional front-engine roadster had the advantage on the straights with its higher top speed. Gurney’s car eventually succumbed to tire troubles, but Jones and Clark kept charging.
It was somewhere around lap 80 when officials first saw smoke intermittently wafting from Jones’s Offenhauser-powered Watson. The problem — a crack in the oil tank at the car’s rear — grew worse as the race continued. One hundred laps later, Jones’s car wasn’t just smoking, but purportedly leaving oil on the track. Per Indy’s rules, an oil leak called for Jones’s car to be black flagged — forced to the pits and effectively disqualified. J.C. Agajanian, owner of Jones’s car, pleaded his case to officials, claiming that the leak was easing as the oil fell below the level of the crack. Colin Chapman, campaigning Jim Clark’s car, argued for Jones to get the black flag.
After spirited debate, officials chose not to disqualify Jones. Instead of a black flag, Parnelli Jones took the checkered, with Jim Clark finishing second. Race fans still argue over how much of a factor that oil leak was and whether the black flag should have been used. But hypotheticals don’t mean much in the record books. Parnelli Jones earned his 1963 victory after leading 167 of 200 laps and maintaining an average race speed of 143.137 miles per hour — impressive numbers worthy of a winner.
Parnelli Jones in his turbine-powered car, built by Andy Granatelli, at Indy in 1967. / THF96164
Jones very nearly won at Indy again in 1967, behind the wheel of an unusual turbine-powered four-wheel-drive car, but a failed transmission bearing took him out as he led the pack just four laps from victory. Jones did win the Indianapolis 500 again as an owner. He partnered with Vel Miletich to form Vel’s Parnelli Jones Racing, and the team earned back-to-back victories with driver Al Unser in 1970 and 1971. VPJ Racing’s “Johnny Lighting” cars are still loved by fans for their striking blue-and-yellow lightning-stripe livery.
Parnelli Jones and Bobby Unser at Pikes Peak in 1964. Jones took first in the stock car division that year, while Unser topped the sports car division. / THF262097
Parnelli Jones’s triumphs went beyond Indianapolis. Like other greats of his era, he raced everywhere — from dirt tracks to Pikes Peak and from NASCAR ovals to Trans-Am circuits. By the 1970s, Jones had largely retired from open-wheel, open-cockpit racing, but he found further success in off-road Baja races. Jones partnered with co-driver Bill Stroppe to win Mexico’s Baja 1000 in 1971 and 1972, and the Baja 500 and the Mint 400 in 1973. Jones and Stroppe ran the races in a modified Ford Bronco sponsored by Olympia Beer — source of the Bronco’s memorable nickname, “Big Oly.” When he wasn’t racing, Jones kept busy selling automotive parts and tires through his retail businesses.
In 2008, Parnelli Jones was kind enough to sit for an interview with The Henry Ford for our “Visionaries on Innovation” series. We asked Jones how he hoped to be remembered — a standard question in many of these interviews. Naturally, he wanted to be thought of as a great driver, one who could win in almost any form of auto racing. (Jones needn’t have worried about that. It’s exactly how he’s being remembered now.) But it speaks to something deeper in his character that, first and foremost, he wanted to be remembered as a good, honest person. It’s an epitaph any of us would be proud to have, and one that certainly fits Parnelli Jones. The racing world will miss him.
Parnelli Jones in 2008. / THF56305
Matt Anderson is curator of transportation at The Henry Ford.
