Bristol Dragway has been good to Alexis DeJoria over the years. During her rookie season, she and crew chief Del Worsham went to their first final round together at the 2012 Thunder Valley Nationals, and after reuniting with Worsham to form DC Motorsports in 2020, the duo went on to win their first race together as driver/crew chief during the 2021 event. While the team didn’t score a repeat performance on Sunday afternoon, they successfully advanced to the semifinals, which boosted them to the No. 7 spot in the Funny Car rankings, and within one point of Toyota Gazoo Racing teammate, J.R. Todd, who occupies sixth.
After qualifying with a 4.461 E.T., the DC Motorsports team began their race day from the No. 12 position and with a first-round match-up versus Bob Tasca III. DeJoria earned the starting line advantage and a hard-fought round win after her machine started dropping cylinders and shoved her toward the retaining wall. DeJoria reeled it in and was able to save the run to earn a bid to the quarterfinals where she faced point leader and most-recent event winner, Matt Hagan. Against, Hagan, DeJoria took the Bandero Premium Tequila/ROKiT Toyota GR Supra to the stripe in 4.068-seconds to outpace her tire-smoking opponent. The semifinals pitted DeJoria versus fellow Toyota GR Supra pilot Ron Capps. DeJoria charged hard to the finish line, clocking a 4.050 E.T., but it wasn’t enough to outrun Capps’ 4.016-second pass, ending DeJoria’s day after the semifinals.
“We didn’t have our best showing earlier this weekend during qualifying, but we turned things around when it counted,” said DeJoria, a six-time Funny Car event champion. “(Crew chiefs) Del (Worsham) and Nicky (Boninfante) gave me a great car today, and we sure as hell showed ‘em what we’re made of. Going to the semis gave us a nice little boost of confidence to carry us into these next several races.
“Our Bandero Toyota Supra was one of the fastest cars on race day today,” she added. “Nothing to hang our heads about. We moved up in points, and now we’re trucking. We’ve got a string of back-to-back races coming up and the more I’m in the car, the better.”
No. 7 ranked Alexis DeJoria and the DC Motorsports team compete next at the NHRA Norwalk Nationals in Norwalk, Ohio, June 24 – 26.
Qualified: No. 12 (4.461 E.T. at 214.08 MPH)
Elimination Round Results:
E1: 4.114 E.T. at 273.00 MPH defeated Bob Tasca 4.686 E.T. at 178.83 MPH
E2: 4.068 E.T. at 317.12 MPH defeated Matt Hagan 4.914 E.T. at 201.70 MPH
E3: 4.050 E.T. at 321.50 MPH defeated by Ron Capps 4.016 E.T. at 318.99 MPH
NHRA Camping World Series Funny Car Point Standings (Unofficial):
| 1 | Matt Hagan | 854 | |
| 2 | Robert Hight | 812 | |
| 3 | Ron Capps | 748 | |
| 4 | John Force | 588 | |
| 5 | Cruz Pedregon | 507 | |
| 6 | J.R. Todd | 435 | |
| 7 | Alexis DeJoria | 434 | |
| 8 | Bob Tasca III | 420 | |
| 9 | Tim Wilkerson | 411 | |
| 10 | Chad Green | 373 |
ABM Communications PR
