After reaching the final quad at last year’s NHRA 4-Wide Nationals at zMAX Dragway, Alexis DeJoria entered Sunday’s eliminations looking to replicate that success at the season’s only four-wide event. Backed by a strong qualifying performance that secured the No. 5 seed, DeJoria and her Bandero Café Chevrolet SS Funny Car team advanced out of the opening round before falling short of a return trip to the final elimination quad.
DeJoria rebounded from early traction issues in Friday’s opening qualifying session with a standout 3.932-second pass at 331.20 mph under the lights, vaulting from 14th to fifth in the order. Crew chiefs Mike Neff and Jonnie Lindberg sent DeJoria on another good run during Saturday’s first session where she posted a 3.993 E.T. before traction problems followed in the final round.
With the No. 5 qualifying position locked in, DeJoria matched up against No. 4 qualifier J.R. Todd, No. 12 qualifier Hunter Green, and No. 13 qualifier Jeff Arend in the opening quad where she delivered a clean and competitive 3.962-second pass at 324.36 mph to advance alongside Todd. In the quarterfinal round, she made a decent 3.980-second run, but it wasn’t enough to outpace Todd and Ron Capps, who posted quicker E.T.s to advance, ending her bid for a first 4-Wide Wally trophy.
“Ran a little slower than we had planned,” said DeJoria, who reached the final round at the season-opening Gatornationals with her new John Force Racing team last month. “It didn’t drop a hole, but it was pushing me downtrack. I was getting pretty close to the centerline, but luckily it was towards the end. I was giving the wheel input, and it was just not reacting, so right before I thought I was going to cross the centerline, I lifted and fortunately, missed it, but it wouldn’t have mattered anyway because we ran a 98. We’re doing well, we just need to touch up on some areas and get this thing going a little quicker. It’s consistent; we’re getting down the race track, we just need to get down there a little quicker.”
DeJoria won’t have to wait long for another shot at the winner’s circle as the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series heads to Adel, Ga. near Valdosta this week for the NHRA Southern Nationals at South Georgia Motorsports Park, May 1-3. She will start the weekend ranked sixth in the Funny Car point standings, up one spot from the previous event.
