Returning as the 2023 NHRA Four-Wide Nationals Funny Car runner-up, Alexis DeJoria was determined to take her Bandero Premium Tequila Toyota GR Supra one step further on Sunday at zMAX Dragway, but an immediate loss of traction in the quarterfinals ended her chances at clinching a first four-wide Wally trophy.
DeJoria started race day from the top half of the field after clocking a blistering 3.859-second at 331.69 MPH pass on Friday night under the lights. The run held up to be the second-quickest of the session, which allowed DeJoria to add two bonus points to her total and placed her fourth on the Funny Car elimination ladder after all four sessions were completed.
Despite securing a top-seeded starting position, DeJoria found herself in a tough first-round elimination quad, which featured her Toyota teammates J.R. Todd and Ron Capps, in addition to Buddy Hull. In what was billed as NHRA’s Marquee Matchup, DeJoria was quick on the throttle, clocking a .050-second reaction time to get the holeshot start over her three competitors. Her machine lost traction shortly after, but DeJoria’s driving experience paid off when she masterfully pedaled her car and got it to quickly recover, driving past Hull to advance into round two along with Todd. She was plagued with traction issues once again in the quarterfinals when she stood on the throttle and immediately went up in smoke while Todd and John Force posted a pair of 3.9-second runs to move on to the final round.
“Went out there and won first round today, got to do a good pedal job, and I love doing that,” said DeJoria, a two-time finalist at zMAX Dragway. “Second round, we went out and smoked the tires right at the hit but we’re trying hard here and digging deep.”
While she won’t leave the Charlotte area with some new hardware, DeJoria is happy with how her team was able to adapt after a personnel restructuring following the Las Vegas four-wide event.
“We had some big changes coming into this race between Vegas and now, so I wasn’t quite sure how things were going to be,” DeJoria added. “We ended up running a 3.85 Friday night, which really turned things around and boosted team morale. Going into race day, we were qualified fourth, and it feels really good to be back in the top, running numbers that we used to run considering the fact that we made clutch changes over the winter. I know (crew chief) Del (Worsham) and the team have been trying to creep up on things, not trying to go over center, and we’re progressing. Thank you to everyone who supports our team, and in particular, I want to recognize Mobil 1 and congratulate them on their 50th anniversary. I can’t wait to get back into my race car. Unfortunately, we have two weeks off until our Chicago race, but we’ll be ready.”
DeJoria will start the Route 66 NHRA Nationals, May 17 – 19, ranked seventh in the NHRA Mission Foods Funny Car point standings.
Qualified: No. 4 (3.859 E.T. at 331.69 MPH)
Elimination Round Results:
E1: 5.444 E.T. at 265.43 MPH defeated Buddy Hull 5.414 E.T. at 162.39 MPH, Ron Capps 16.244 E.T. at 30.34 MPH
E2: 9.999 E.T. at 79.40 MPH defeated by John Force 3.914 E.T. at 330.80 MPH, J.R. Todd 3.933 E.T. at 324.20 MPH
NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series Funny Car Point Standings (Unofficial):
| 1 | Austin Prock | 408 | |
| 2 | J.R. Todd | 391 | |
| 3 | Matt Hagan | 376 | |
| 4 | Bob Tasca III | 339 | |
| 5 | John Force | 338 | |
| 6 | Ron Capps | 274 | |
| 7 | Alexis DeJoria | 253 | |
| 8 | Dan Wilkerson | 241 | |
| 9 | Chad Green | 225 | |
| 10 | Paul Lee | 215 |
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