Alexis DeJoria started her West Coast campaign with a semifinal finish Sunday at the Muckleshoot Casino & Resort NHRA Northwest Nationals at Pacific Raceways. Driving the Bandero Café Funny Car, DeJoria turned in one of her most impressive race day performances of the season, winning back-to-back rounds on holeshots to reach the semifinals for the fourth time in 2025.
After qualifying No. 11 with a 3.973-second pass at 328.94 mph, DeJoria faced Chad Green in the first round of eliminations. DeJoria left first with a sharp .065 reaction time and used it to her advantage, powering to a 3.936 E.T. at 330.39 mph to edge out Green’s quicker-but-losing 3.915 at 328.06 mph. She followed up with another holeshot win in round two, this time over 2018 Funny Car world champion J.R. Todd. DeJoria ran her quickest pass of the weekend, a 3.918 at 330.80 mph, to hold off Todd’s 3.907 at 336.32 mph. In the semifinals, DeJoria ran another strong 3.946 E.T. at 329.34 mph but couldn’t keep pace with a charging Matt Hagan, who posted a 3.879 at 332.92 mph to advance.
“What a great weekend for the Bandero Café Funny Car team back here at Pacific Raceways, where I won my very first national event in Top Alcohol Funny Car,” DeJoria said. “I don’t know if it’s the oxygen in the air from all the trees around the track or what, but man, what a great day. We were all just feeling it. We didn’t qualify the greatest, but on race day, anything can happen. In the first round, we ran good in the right lane when lots of people were not making it down. I cut an excellent light and got a holeshot win. Just to get past the first round was big because the last couple of races have been tough and we haven’t made it past the first round, so that was huge. That felt like a win in itself. We’re progressing and it’s really coming together. I really thought today was our day. We made up some really good points, we’re back in the top 10, and we have another race, Sonoma, in a couple of days.”
DeJoria’s semifinal finish helped her jump from No. 11 to No. 8 in the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series Funny Car standings with just three races remaining before playoff positions are locked in.
With Sunday’s performance, DeJoria also secured a spot in the upcoming #2Fast2Tasty Mission Foods Challenge during qualifying at the NHRA Sonoma Nationals at Sonoma Raceway, where she’ll look to continue her mid-season climb.
This story was originally published on July 21, 2025. 
