The following day, the driver Eddie Sachs, who claimed that oil from Jones’s car had caused him to slide into a wall, got into an argument with him. As Jones told MotorSport magazine in 2013: “I said, ‘I oughtta bust you in the mouth.’ And he said, ‘Go ahead.’ So I let him have it.”
Jones’s final Indy 500 came in 1967, when he drove Andy Granatelli’s revolutionary turbine-powered car, which was considerably faster than the traditional piston-engine cars. He was leading A.J. Foyt by more than a mile with seven and a half miles to go when a bearing, reportedly costing $6, failed in his gear box, forcing him to limp into the pits as Foyt went on to his third Indy 500 triumph.
In 1971 and ’72, Jones won the off-road race that came to be known as the Baja 1000, and he captured the Sports Car Club of America’s 1970 road-racing Trans-Am Championship.
In addition to his son P.J., he is survived by his wife, Judy Jones; another son, Page; and six grandchildren.
After his racing years, Jones operated chains of tire dealerships and auto parts distributorships.
At times, he showed a penchant for speed away from the pro circuit. He told how in the aftermath of his 1963 Indy 500 victory, a police officer stopped him for speeding on a Southern California freeway and asked him, “Who do you think you are, Parnelli Jones?”
His 2012 autobiography, written with Bones Bourcier, a journalist, was titled, “As a Matter of Fact, I Am Parnelli Jones.”
Alexandra Petri contributed reporting.
