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Parnelli Jones, hard-charging race driver who won the controversial Indianapolis 500 in 1963, has died
Parnelli Jones, a hard-bitten, hard-charging race driver who came out of Torrance and won the controversial Indianapolis 500 in 1963, then was the hard-luck loser four years later, died Tuesday at Torrance Memorial Medical Center after a battle with Parkinson’s disease. He was 90.
At the time of his death, Jones was the oldest living winner of the Indy 500. And although he won the race at Indy — then unquestionably the biggest motor sports event in the world — only once and ran in it only seven times, he stands as one of the dominant figures of his driving era, an era that also produced A.J. Foyt, Jim Clark, Dan Gurney and Richard Petty. Indeed, Jones raced against — and beat — all of them at some point in his career.
And a busy career it was, for Jones liked to drive anything that could be raced. He won in midget cars and sprint cars, Indy cars and stock cars, sports cars and, after deciding that the demands of track racing were getting in the way of his burgeoning business interests, off-road racers.
It was at Indianapolis, though, that Jones made his name and grew his fame.
Jones got there in 1961, driving for the late San Pedro promoter/character/businessman J.C. Agajanian. He qualified fifth, finished 12th and was named co-rookie of the year with Bobby Marshman. In a portent of things to come, Australian Jack Brabham finished ninth in a Cooper Climax, a modified version of the car he drove in European Formula One races. The Cooper’s engine was mounted behind the driver.
In 1962, Jones electrified the Indy crowds, becoming the first driver to break 150 mph and winning the pole with a qualifying speed of 150.137. He was running away with the race when his car’s brakes failed at about 300 miles, but he kept going, eventually finishing seventh.
By 1963, things had changed at Indy. Gurney, at the time a Formula One regular from Costa Mesa, had convinced English car builder Colin Chapman that a rear-engine car could win the 500 if only it had a stronger power plant than the one that had been in Brabham’s Cooper. Chapman persuaded Ford Motor Co. to fulfill his V-8 engine requirements and built the first of what were to become revolutionary Lotus-Fords, pencil-thin cars that looked like spiders capering through the turns. There was one for Gurney and another for Clark.
Against these stood the traditional Indy roadsters, long-snouted brutes in which drivers sat bolt-upright behind the engines, most of them the growling four-cylinder Offenhausers that had ruled the speedway since the end of World War II. They made the rear-engine cars look almost dainty and were driven by the traditional Indy regulars — Foyt, Jones, Jim Hurtubise, Rodger Ward and others.
The Lotus-Fords were the talk of the town but Jones, in his four-year-old No. 98, “Ol’ Calhoun,” dominated the monthlong speed derby, again sitting on the pole with a qualifying speed of 151.153 mph. He dominated the race too, leading for 167 of the 200 laps around the 2.5-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and was comfortably ahead when the second-running Clark made his move with 30 laps left.
Clark cut Jones’ lead to 4 1/2 seconds and Jones’ car was exuding ominous puffs of black smoke, the result of a leaking oil reservoir. According to Jones, oil was spraying onto the engine and hot exhaust pipe, causing the smoke.
Some of that oil, though, was also going onto the track, creating a safety hazard.
Chapman scrambled to the officials’ stand, pleading with Chief Steward Harlan Fengler to put out a black flag for Jones, calling him to the pits. Agajanian, unmistakable in his trademark cowboy hat, urged Fengler to let Jones ride out the crisis.
Parnelli Jones smiles after he won the pole for the Yankee 300 stock car race at Indianapolis Raceway Park in April 1963.
(Associated Press)
While the argument raged, fourth-running Eddie Sachs spun, bringing out the yellow flag briefly, then spun again and crashed nine laps later. During the caution period that followed, Jones somehow gained two seconds back on Clark. And somehow, too, his oil problem stopped, the level in his car’s oil tank having fallen below the area of the leak. Jones set sail again and won easily as Clark backed off.
Said a crushed Clark, “I saw what Sachs did and I didn’t want to do the same thing. I’d skidded a bit myself.” He added, “I got beat by the yellow light. The yellow and the oil … I reduced my speed [during the caution period] and held my position. Other people went right on by, though, and Parnelli actually increased his lead.”
Jones maintained that he was simply trying to protect himself in a dangerous situation. “I saw an opening and I just gunned it and got out of there,” he said.
Even so, many considered Clark the rightful winner, arguing that the decision was simply the Indianapolis Establishment taking care of one of its own. Sachs, in fact, said on national TV that he’d spun in Jones’ oil and that Jones’ victory was “tainted.” The next day, at a gathering in a nearby motel, Jones asked Sachs to repeat what he’d said on TV. Sachs did, an argument ensued and Jones punched Sachs in the mouth, drawing blood.
By 1967, things had again changed at Indy. Jones had quietly retired from Indy car racing, Europeans Clark and Graham Hill had won the previous two races in rear-engine machines and nearly everyone else was driving them as well. But flamboyant car owner Andy Granatelli had another idea.
He came with a four-wheel-drive car that was as radical a departure as the old Brickyard had ever seen. For one thing, it made practically no noise. For another, the driver sat neither in front of nor behind the engine, but beside it. And the engine? It was a Pratt & Whitney turbine — basically a jet — similar to those used in many aircraft. The car, quickly dubbed “the Whooshmobile,” was born amid instant controversy. According to the rules, though, it was legal.
Granatelli talked Jones out of his brief retirement, but the car was like nothing Jones had ever driven. The gearbox was too fragile to handle the engine’s power and on qualifying day, after having gone through four of them in practice, the crew installed the last one on hand.
Jones eased to a qualifying spot, at 166.098 mph, on the outside of the second row, but on race day, there was no question where the speed lay. With a beefed-up gearbox, Jones quickly staked the turbine car to the lead when rain interrupted after 18 laps.
It was more of the same when the race was resumed the next day, and Jones was whooshing along with a 54-second lead, just short of a lap, with only four laps left.
Then, suddenly, a bearing in the gearbox failed, Jones dropped back and Foyt, threading his way through a multi-car accident on the final lap, scored the third of his four Indy victories.
And, although he would win twice more at Indy as a car owner — with Al Unser in 1970 and 71 — that was it for Jones as an Indy car driver.
Rufus Parnell Jones was born Aug. 12, 1933, in Texarkana, Ark., but lived most of his life in the Los Angeles area. As a successful driver-businessman, he resided in Rolling Hills on the Palos Verdes Peninsula.
And how did Rufus Parnell become Parnelli? According to one explanation, Parnelli was an aunt’s pet name for her young nephew. According to another, a boyhood friend teasingly called Jones Parnellie, after the girl’s name, Nellie. When an underage Jones wanted to go racing, and didn’t want his family to know about it, he dropped the “e” from Parnellie, put the name on a phony ID card and became famous as Parnelli Jones.
“Parnelli will forever be one of the best we have ever seen behind the wheel,” said Dave Allen, president of the West Region of NASCAR and the Auto Club Speedway. “It didn’t matter what he drove, he was fast! He will be missed as a friend and a true legend. My thoughts and well wishes go out to the Jones family and all the people Rufus impacted in his amazing life. Stay on the gas my friend.”
Had Jones not chosen Indy cars, he might well have become famous in stock cars. In 1963 and ’64, he was the terror of the U.S. Auto Club’s stock car division, then on a par with a fledgling NASCAR. He won seven consecutive races in that span at the Milwaukee Mile, then USAC stock car’s main track with four races a season. He ran sparingly in NASCAR’s premier Grand National division — now the NASCAR Cup Series — but still won four times.
After his retirement from Indy car racing, Jones turned to the Sports Car Club of America’s Trans-Am sedan series, won a championship there to go with his previous USAC midget, sprint car and stock car titles, and formed, with the late Vel Miletich, his longtime business partner, an Indy car team. With Andretti, Unser and Joe Leonard driving, it quickly became known as “Superteam,” dominating Indy car racing for several seasons. In off-road racing, he was a multiple winner of the Baja 1000.
His real estate and car-related businesses flourished, but not everything he touched turned to gold. When the Ontario Motor Speedway, built as “the Indianapolis Speedway of the West,” fell on hard times, he and Miletich tried to save it but couldn’t. And a Formula One team he set up for Andretti went under when Jones couldn’t attract sponsors.
A member of various racing halls of fame, Jones once said, “Indy is the World Series of auto racing. In the seven years I drove, I had a good chance at winning five times. I had some God-given talent, a will to win and a can’t-stand-to-lose attitude. Race car driving is dangerous, but you can’t be afraid. You have to rely on your own ability.”
Jones is survived by his wife, Judy, and sons PJ and Page, both of whom followed him into racing.
Trump says there’s ‘no time frame’ to secure Iran deal
Republican Minnesota Senate candidate Tom Weiler joins ‘Fox & Friends’ to discuss President Donald Trump’s blockade in the Strait of Hormuz as the U.S.-Iranian conflict continues and react to Gov. Tim Walz’s, D-Minn., criticism of the president.
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Saudi Arabia was among the countries seeing missiles fly into their airspace as a conflict broke out in the Middle East between the U.S. and Iran.
The prospect of Iran targeting its Middle Eastern neighbors like Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates put some sporting events on hold and questioned others. Formula 1 races in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain were canceled and rumors swirled around whether future WWE events could be held in the kingdom.
Roman Reigns celebrates his win during WWE’s Royal Rumble at Riyadh Season Stadium in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Jan. 31, 2026. (Georgiana Dallas/WWE)
As the Trump administration brokered a ceasefire with Iran, WWE announced on Thursday that its Night of Champions premium live event will be held in Riyadh on June 27.
“We are proud to welcome Night of Champions back to Riyadh and look forward to delivering another unforgettable night of WWE action for fans in the Kingdom and around the world,” General Entertainment Authority chairman Turki Al-Sheikh said in a news release.
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Sami Zayn makes his entrance during Night of Champions at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on June 28, 2025. (Georgiana Dallas/WWE)
The release touted that WrestleMania 43 will still be held in Riyadh in 2027. It will be the first time that WrestleMania is held outside the U.S.
WWE president Nick Khan was adamant before WrestleMania 42 that the event will still take place in Saudi Arabia despite the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.
“We’re doing WrestleMania next year in Saudi,” he said at a Sports Business Journal event, via The Sporting Tribune. “First time ever, WrestleMania will be outside the United States or Canada. And we’ve had a big, fruitful partnership with them.”
John Cena wrestles CM Punk during Night of Champions at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on June 28, 2025. (Georgiana Dallas/WWE)
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He added that those complaining about WrestleMania being held in Saudi Arabia were a “vocal minority.”
Thousand-dollar tickets and hundreds of dollars in fees shocked some hopeful Olympic fans this month, but they did not keep LA28 from boasting strong sales in the committee’s first ticket drop.
LA28 announced Thursday that it sold more than 4 million Olympic tickets during the first ticket drop. The private organizing committee will have a second ticket drop in August with “refreshed inventory across all Olympic sports at a range of price points.”
But after the popularity of the first purchasing period, many of the lower-priced tickets have already been scooped up.
LA28 said roughly half of the total 1 million $28 tickets were sold during the locals presale, which was limited to people living near venue cities in Southern California and Oklahoma City.
The average price per Olympic ticket is less than $200, which includes a mandatory 24% service fee, and LA28 said about 75% of all tickets, including final events, will be under $400. The premier seats at high-demand events command more than $1,000 per ticket, but the highest priced categories make up about 5% of the total ticket inventory.
Artistic gymnastics sold out the quickest in Drop 1. Four new Olympic sports — flag football, lacrosse, softball and squash — sold all their available inventory for the first drop. After five days of local presale, global ticket sales opened and drew fans from 85 countries and all 50 states and U.S. territories. The largest international sales came from the United Kingdom, Canada, Mexico and Japan.
For the first female-majority Olympic Games, LA28 reported that women’s Olympic sessions outsold men’s 93% to 88% during the first drop.
“The response to our initial on-sale was nothing short of historic. Fans from near and far have spoken: the world wants to be part of the LA28 Games,” LA28 chief executive officer Reynold Hoover said in a statement. “The success of Drop 1 is about more than momentum — it reflects LA28’s commitment to delivering a fiscally responsible Games that create a lasting legacy for Los Angeles and its communities.”
Drop 2, which will begin in August, will have additional tickets across all Olympic sports, including those that may have sold out during the first purchasing windows. The registration period for Drop 2 opened Thursday and will continue until July 22. Fans who registered for the first drop of tickets but did not receive a time slot and fans who did not buy their maximum 12 general ticket allotment will automatically be entered into the random lottery Drop 2. The new registration period is only required for anybody who did not sign up for the initial drop.
Fans are still limited to 12 Olympic tickets and up to 12 soccer tickets that don’t count toward the general maximum. There is a four ticket per ceremony limit for the opening and closing ceremony that count toward the 12-ticket maximum, which is cumulative across all LA28 presales and ticket drops.
LA28 will have multiple ticket drops with assigned purchasing time slots before ticket sales move to a first-come, first-served format closer to the Games, which open on July 14, 2028. LA28 began its ticketing process earlier than most other Olympic Games with tickets going on sale more than two years in advance of the opening ceremony. The early timeline has created excitement for the first Summer Olympics in the United States since Atlanta 1996, but also prompted concerns about scheduling. Fans clamored for tickets with little information about which teams or athletes would be competing in most sessions.
Tickets are not refundable, but fans can opt for verified resale when LA28 launches its official resale system in 2027. AXS and Eventim is the official secondary ticket marketplace of the LA28 Games and Ticketmaster and Sports Illustrated Tickets have also signed on as additional verified resale platforms.
LA28 will have 14 million tickets available for the Olympic and Paralympic Games, which would eclipse the record of 12 million tickets sold for the Paris Games. Paris 2024 sold an about 9.5 million tickets for the Olympics, but used a different ticket system than LA28. For Paris, 3.5 million tickets were sold during the first phase, during which fans were required to buy tickets to at least three different sports instead of the option for single-event tickets available during LA28’s Drop 1 process.
Tickets for the 2028 Paralympics, which will be the first in L.A.’s history, will go on sale in 2027. Ticket sales and hospitality are expected to cover about $2.5 billion of LA28’s expected $7.1 billion budget for the first Games in L.A. in more than 40 years.
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An envoy for President Donald Trump has reportedly asked FIFA to replace Iran with Italy in the 2026 World Cup this summer.
The Financial Times reported the plan is an effort to repair the relationship between Trump and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, which soured after the former’s comments against Pope Leo XIV regarding the war with Iran.
United States special envoy Paolo Zampolli suggested the idea to FIFA President Gianni Infantino.
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President Donald Trump receives the FIFA Peace Prize from FIFA President Gianni Infantino during the FIFA World Cup 2026 Official Draw at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 5, 2025. (Emilee Chinn/FIFA)
“I confirm I have suggested to Trump and Infantino that Italy replace Iran at the World Cup. I’m an Italian native, and it would be a dream to see the Azzurri at a U.S.-hosted tournament,” Zampolli told the outlet. “With four titles, they have the pedigree to justify inclusion.”
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment by Fox News Digital.
Italy had a chance to be in the World Cup already, but it lost in a penalty shootout to Bosnia and Herzegovina in a qualifying playoff final.
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Italy became the first World Cup-winning team to miss three consecutive tournaments after the 4-1 penalty shootout loss earlier this month.
“We still don’t believe it that we’re out and that it happened in this manner,” Italy’s Leonardo Spinazzola told reporters at the time, according to the New York Post.
“It’s upsetting for everyone. For us, for our families and for all the kids who have never seen Italy at a World Cup.”
While Zampolli told Infantino about his proposed plan, FIFA’s president said Iran “for sure” will play in the World Cup despite the conflict involving the U.S.
Mehdi Taremi of Iran celebrates after scoring a goal during a 2026 FIFA World Cup Asian Qualifiers Group A game against Uzbekistan at Azadi Stadium in Tehran March 25, 2025. (Fatemeh Bahrami/Anadolu)
“The Iranian team is coming, for sure,” Infantino said during the CNBC Invest in America Forum earlier this month in Washington, D.C.
“We hope that, by then, of course, the situation will be a peaceful situation. That would definitely help. But Iran has to come, of course. They represent their people. They have qualified. The players want to play.”
Infantino visited the Iranian national team in Turkey, which is where it has its training camp.
All three of Iran’s group stage games are scheduled to be played in the U.S. That remains the case after Iranian government officials suggested to FIFA that their games be moved to Mexico because they could not travel to the U.S.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum revealed FIFA’s rejection of Iran’s request, and it is insisting Iran play where it’s scheduled — SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, and Lumen Field in Seattle. Iran said earlier this month it would only decide on its team’s participation once it heard from FIFA regarding its relocation request.
Iran is scheduled to play at SoFi Stadium against New Zealand June 16 to begin its tournament. It will also play Belgium at the stadium before finishing group play against Mo Salah and Egypt in Seattle June 26.
FIFA President Gianni Infantino attends an international friendly between Mexico and Portugal at Banorte Stadium in Mexico City March 28, 2026. (Antonio Torres/FIFA/Getty Images)
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Trump wrote in a Truth Social post last month that Iran would be welcome to compete in the World Cup as scheduled, though it might not be “appropriate” considering the conflict.
“The Iran National Soccer Team is welcome to The World Cup, but I really don’t believe it is appropriate that they be there, for their own life and safety,” he wrote.
Trump also told Politico, “I really don’t care,” when asked about Iran’s participation in the tournament. Infantino, who has a strong relationship with Trump, said Trump has “reiterated” to him that the U.S. welcomes Iran’s team to compete.
Fox News’ Paulina Dedaj and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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