By: Spencer Neff
June 4, 2024

Racing Icon Parnelli Jones has passed away at age 90. Jones, who was born in Texarkana, Arkansas, began racing shortly after moving to California as a child.

After beginning in stock car racing, Jones would move on to sprint cars, where he earned the 1960 Midwest region championship.

In 1961, he was named Indianapolis 500 Rookie of the Year alongside Bobby Marshman after finishing 12th and leading 27 laps from his fifth-place starting position.

The next year, he would become the first driver to eclipse 150 mph during a qualifying effort at the Indianapolis 500. He would start the race on the pole and finished seventh after leading 120 laps.

Jones would return to Indianapolis a year later in his iconic Offenhauser-powered Watson dubbed “Ol’ Calhoun”. He again would start on the pole and led 167 laps, including the last 105, en route to his lone “500” victory.

He would race at the “500” four more times, finishing second to Jim Clark two years after Clark had finished second to him. Jones’ last appearance in the race would come in 1967.

He drove Andy Granatelli’s famed STP turbine-powered car. Affectionately nicknamed the “whoosh mobile”, he would lead 171 laps but a ball bearing would derail his shot at victory as he finished sixth.

Jones, who participated in other racing disciplines from stock car to off-road racing, would also find Victory Lane at the Indianapolis 500 as a car owner.

Driving for the Vel’s Parnell Jones Racing, Unser became one of six drivers to win consecutive Indianapolis 500s in 1970-71. Both of his sons, Page and P.J. would become race car drivers, as has Jagger, P.J.’s son and Parnelli’s grandson.

IndyCar1909.com thanks Parnelli Jones for his contributions to auto racing and we extend our condolences to the Jones family.

Header Image By INDYCAR