P. J. Jones

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P. J. Jones Biography

Parnell Velko “P. J.” Jones (born April 23, 1969) is an American professional racing driver. He has contested in multiple disciplines, including NASCAR, IndyCar, IMSA GT Championship, the American Le Mans Series, USAC, the Chili Bowl, and the Stadium Super Trucks.

Jones’ preliminary efforts in racing were, in a fashion not atypical for young drivers, focused on go-karting. Upon graduation from his introductory-level competitions, Jones began to enter the oval races at Ascot Park, much as his father did decades prior. Accumulating experience and accolades, Jones would progress vertically to United States Auto Club-sanctioned events. From numerous choices within the USAC governing body’s expansive portfolio of open-wheel divisions, Jones opted to participate in the West Coast Midget category. 1986’s racing season saw Jones earn the rookie of the year title in that class as the then-young driver began a quest to surpass his father in auto racing accomplishments; he had, by virtue of being a high school junior, already overtaken Parnelli in academic achievement.

In 1988, Jones also scored victory in a world championship sprint car race which transpired in Auckland, proving that his talents transcended both the scope of pavement racing and the borders of the United States of America.

As Jones continued to craft a reputation as the future of motorsport in USAC, he began to dabble in IMSA GT, foreshadowing the dawn of his career’s peak, which would take place, at least in part, in the GTP classification within the series. At this stage, Jones was participating in the GTO and GTU classes with Clayton-Cunningham Racing and their stable of Mazda RX-7 vehicles. A partial season in both GTO and GTU left Jones just fourteenth and twenty-seventh in the respective standings. Low rankings, however, would not overshadow Jones’ ability in the rotary-engined racing car; instead, 1988 was highlighted by a podium finish in one of the GTU races.

Jones was not the kind of prospect to be discouraged by slow development, though, and rose from the quiet 1990 to reestablish his potential as an auto racing champion in 1991. His season began in GTP, running the 24 Hours of Daytona for Dan Gurney and his All American Racers squad, which fielded a Toyota-powered Eagle HF90 in a race that would not see the loftiest of successes. Still, for Jones to even be considered by a man as keen in motoring matters as Gurney provided a much-needed elevation in confidence level that would propel Jones through the coming year, where his focus remained on the American Racing Series.

Jones returned to the American Racing Series in 1990. Though with the same team, and utilizing the same March/Buick package, Jones failed to score a single race victory. An unsuccessful foray into what is now NASCAR’s K&N Pro Series West and a handful of forgettable trials at the wheel of a Ford Ranger in SCCA’s Racetruck Challenge rendered this year particularly difficult from a Jonesian perspective. The promise of the 1980s had now faded into an oppressive doubt that could have jeopardized a blossoming career.

Racing down an avenue which would take him to the season’s vice-runner-up position, Jones scored two victories in twelve races, exhibiting excellence on the narrow confines of treacherous street circuits in Toronto and Denver. Having now proven that his talents were beyond the challenges the American Racing Series could offer, Jones would never return to the championship subsequent to 1991’s conclusion.

Outside of Jones’ two wins on the IMSA circuit, the second-generation driver dominated the 1992 Toyota Pro/Celebrity Race in Long Beach.

In 1992, Jones became a full-fledged professional racing driver, now joining Gurney’s team for a full season’s run in IMSA GTP piloting the brand-new Eagle MkIII. Jones was outclassed by his teammate, Juan Manuel Fangio II, who had taken the series title, but such results must be qualified with recognizance of the fact that Jones was a rookie in prototype competitions and had to adapt to the powerful cars which featured astronomical amounts of downforce. Fourth in points with two wins, as Jones was by the year’s end, had far exceeded any reasonable expectations one could have for a young driver in such refined machinery.

All American Racers retained Jones for 1993 and swept the championship and vice-championship positions in IMSA’s GTP category with P.J. trailing Fangio. Now acclimated to the Eagle MkIII Toyota, Jones capitalized on his year’s GTP experience in the season-opening 24 Hours of Daytona, which he won. The victory was shared with co-drivers Mark Dismore and Rocky Moran, father of one of Jones’ future sports car teammates. As an individual, Jones excelled, erasing any doubts that he relied too heavily on his partners for success. In a measure of pure pace, Jones rewrote the track record of Lime Rock Park with a lap of 43.112 seconds. To this day, no one has ever circulated the Western Connecticut racecourse’s figure as quickly.

Jones was runner-up at the GTP class of the IMSA GT Championship in 1993 and fourth in 1992. He also finished fourth at the 2002 NASCAR Winston Cup Series race at Watkins Glen, and second at the 1999 CART race at Nazareth. His father is Indianapolis 500 winner Parnelli Jones, his brother is Page Jones, a former racing driver, and one of his sons, Jagger Jones, currently races in the ARCA Menards Series West.

Jim Smith, pleased with Jones’ services from the prior year, brought the driver back to his team for the Fontana and Phoenix races, two Western rounds for a Western driver. The No. 2 team had been using a rotating lineup of racing talents all season, so Jones did not displace anyone, even though he was participating in a racing truck that ran the full schedule. Mirroring the successful performance with Ultra in the West Series race of 1994, Jones scored a top ten in the Truck round in Phoenix, a rare highlight in a promising career soiled by unplanned failure.

Jones would contest many other midget races in 1994, often with his brother. In the USAC Silver Crown Series event on the IRP facility, P.J. would score a respectable second-place finish behind Mike Bliss, then the dominant driver on that particular circuit, after starting from the pole position.

Jones’ season started with BACE Motorsports, a team which had won three Busch Series titles from 1995-1997. It was not to be a championship effort, however, even with a talent like Jones controlling the car styled as a Chevrolet Monte Carlo silhouette. With no results better than the twenty-fourth spot by the end of seven races, Jones was relieved of his driving duties, and relieved of the burdens that came with driving for an under-performing team.

Jones secured the ride for 1995, as the original driver (his brother, Page) was recovering from injuries sustained in a midget crash. In official Truck Series running, Jones was less successful, faltering from a position of favor to that of a journeyman, scoring just two top ten finishes in thirteenth starts. After being released from the team, Jones renewed his desire to compete in Indy-style racers and continued to work on the Toyota CART project as he began an eight-year absence from NASCAR’s Truck division.

NASCAR had also established a SuperTruck division, which was set to begin in 1995. Jones was a pioneer in that series, contesting the exhibition races in 1994 and into the following year. Racing seven times for Scoop Vessels, Jones picked up two victories (in Mesa Marin and again in Phoenix) which were underscored by a further pair of second-place finishes and another two third-place results. His seventh race ended outside of the top ten.

With the Toyota engine now an official entrant in CART for 1996, Jones was hired as a driver for the All American Racers team and its Eagle MK-V Champ Car for an abbreviated season that would begin on the Milwaukee Mile, which hosted the series’ seventh round. In his second CART race, Jones finished ninth, navigating the Belle Isle street course in the same way he had tackled temporary circuits in his American Racing Series days; this result earned the first points ever scored in a Toyota-powered CART special. Jones continued with this program through 1998; success was largely nonexistent, and points would only be accumulated one other time: Fontana 1997.

As 1996 began, Jones was prepared for redemption, and found some in the Chili Bowl. In this edition, he would take the highest glory he ever achieved in the event: second place. It was a promising start to the newest journey on which Jones would embark.

With 2001’s disappointment now trailing him as another car on a train of unfortunate circumstances and less-than-stellar results, Jones spent 2002 in a variety of series, including the USAC Silver Crown Series where he had found success earlier in his career. Jones parlayed this into a chance to run the Indianapolis 500-mile race with Team Menard; it was to be his Indy Racing League debut and return to top-level North American open-wheel racing after a hiatus that inaugurated on October 31, 1999. Misfortune was still inseparable from Jones, and a neck injury during May’s practice runs removed him from the competitive mount; his replacement, Raul Boesel, placed the car on the front row.

In 1999, Jones switched to the Patrick Racing team, abandoning one motorsport legend in Gurney to join another in Pat Patrick. The change of scenery was crucial to Jones’ success, and the final year of the twentieth century would be at the height (and the conclusion) of P.J.’s time in CART. Four consecutive points-scoring finishes from Long Beach to Gateway, including a career-best runner-up result on the Nazareth Speedway marked a year that saw two other top ten classifications in Toronto and Cicero’s races.

As with Scott Pruett and Robby Gordon, Jones decided to leave open-wheel racing and make a full-time switch to NASCAR, where he had spent the middle of the preceding decade. Unlike the other two former CART competitors, Jones would focus on the Busch Series rather than the premier Cup division, where he would enter just two races (one in relief of Gordon, who was participating in the rain-delayed 2000 Indianapolis 500 while the Coca-Cola 600 commenced with Jones in the cockpit of the No. 13 Burger King Ford).

The Busch Series was a suitable home for Jones, and he returned in 2001 with Phoenix Racing, a team owned by James Finch and sponsored by Yellow Freight, the same brand featured on his Ridling car the prior year. Qualifying third for the season-starting Daytona race and scoring a best result of seventeenth on the Atlanta Motor Speedway’s oval (reconfigured from when it featured an infield road course on which Jones had raced in IMSA GTP), Jones was not able to please team manager Marc Reno. He was ousted for Jimmy Spencer, significant in that Spencer would later succeed him at both Ultra Motorsports and the Arnold Development team; he would not be the last driver Phoenix would release prematurely, joined now in that category by his former midget rival Mike Bliss, among others.

Putting this behind him, Jones progressed to the NASCAR West Series race on the Sonoma Raceway. Starting seventh and finishing second, Jones regained his rhythm in the No. 24 Ford one day before he would participate in the Cup Series race on the same track. That, too, was an impressive day for Jones, as he took a Michael Waltrip Racing Toyota from the final grid position to twelfth, his best NASCAR result since 2002. MWR would request his talents for the Watkins Glen race in August, and Jones would oblige. This time, he was classified as twenty-fifth.

Nearly a decade removed from his Winston West win with Ultra Motorsports, Jones returned to the Jim Smith-captained team for the Craftsman Truck Series’ season-closer. Jones has not seen the Homestead-Miami Speedway, site of this race, since his CART days; it was newly redesigned for 2003, so this was not to Jones’s detriment. In the No. 27 Dodge, a special entrant that was not normally found on the rosters of Truck Series races but had been dispatched to Florida to try to help the team secure a driver’s championship for Ted Musgrave, Jones scored a top ten finish, reminding the auto racing world of how strong he had once been in a racing truck.

Jones would be invited to return to the Foyt team in 2003, this time for the Dodge/Save Mart 350 to be held on the Sonoma Raceway. For the second time in three attempts with Foyt, Jones failed to qualify for the race, frustrating Foyt to the point that Jones would not be welcomed back to defend his top five from 2002. Instead, Jones would race a Pontiac Grand Prix for Morgan-McClure Motorsports; he finished twenty places further down the order than he had the previous year.

Instead, Jones retreated to the Busch division, where his success had been limited in the earlier parts of the noughties. Starting last in Mike Curb’s Diversified Partners Dodge for the July Daytona race, Jones mastered the slipstreaming techniques of NASCAR’s draft and worked his way to thirteenth by the race’s end in a reinvigorating performance. The IRP meeting would not end as successfully for Jones, who then moved to Johnny Davis Motorsports to compete in Watkins Glen. A stellar eighth-place qualifying effort was squandered by an engine failure on the seventh lap of the motor race; Jones had taken the JD Motorsports car to places it had never been on the grid’s north end, and was compensated with mechanical incompetence. He would never race for Davis again, and returned to Curb for the Fontana and Phoenix legs as he had for Smith in the 2004 Truck Series season. Twenty-second and twenty-first were the results in those races.

Jones would be on NASCAR’s sidelines until June 2004. Don Arnold was trying to establish his new team, campaigning Dodge-brand stock cars, and believed that Jones could help in this difficult process. Debuting at Pocono Raceway, Jones took a solid twenty-second place, besting even the best performance of a Daytona 500 champion like Derrike Cope, who had only managed twenty-ninth in his brightest day for Arnold Development. The subsequent four races all ended in dismay, with Jones and the No. 50 team retiring from each of these races before ending their relationship.

In May 2004, Jones was finally able to make his debut in the Indianapolis 500, a race his father won in 1963. The rain-shortened race was reduced in length for all competitors, but even more so for Jones, who crashed.

Appearances were sparse in 2005, as ten of Jones’ fourteen scheduled races ended prior to the race; Jones was unable to qualify for these events. Mostly racing with MACH 1 Motorsports, Jones was also able to land the Morgan-McClure ride for the road courses. In both rides, Jones struggled mightily, now deeply into the twilight of his NASCAR career.

2006, like 2004, began in May for Jones, once again in the Indianapolis 500. Beck Motorsports hired Jones to pilot the No. 98 CURB Records entry, identical in sponsor and number to the 2004 special Jones had driven. Running a Panoz chassis, widely regarded as inferior to the Dallara which populated a greater portion of the field, Jones lacked pace and only managed to qualify on the final row. However, a nineteenth-place result was salvaged.

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