Jones, "Parnelli" (Rufus Parnell)
Auto Racing
b. Aug. 12, 1933, Texarkana, AR
In a quiet kind of way, Jones won just about everything he set out to win. It seemed that he always needed a new challenge. He began as a jalopy racer on the West Coast, then won the Midwestern sprint car championship in 1960. He was Rookie of the Year at the Indy 500 in 1961, when he qualified fifth and finished twelfth. He also won the national sprint championship that year and again in 1962.
In 1963 he won the Indy 500 and set a record for a stock car in the Pikes Peak Climb, breaking the old record by more than 30 seconds. He broke that record in 1964, when he also won 7 races and shared an eighth with his teammate, Rodger Ward, to claim the USAC stock-car championship.
After placing second in the 1965 Indy 500, Jones failed to finish the race in 1966 because of mechanical problems, and he announced his retirement from Indy Car racing. Then came another challenge, the chance to drive Andy Granatelli's turbine car in the Indy 500. Jones qualified sixth and was in the lead by the end of the first lap. Rain stopped the race on the 18th lap, and it resumed the next day. Jones and the turbine car had an unbeatable lead with just three laps to go--and then the car died.
Jones really retired from Indy Car driving after that race. But he became a car owner, drove at times in off-road racing and the Trans-Am series, and won more money with his Vel's-Parnelli team, hiring drivers such as Al Unser and Mario Andretti, than he ever had as a driver.