Alexis DeJoria and the Bandero Café team closed out the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series regular season with a second-round finish at the Cornwell Quality Tools NHRA U.S. Nationals on Monday at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park. DeJoria, the 2014 U.S. Nationals champion, qualified sixth in a stacked Funny Car field and will begin the six-race Countdown to the Championship ranked seventh in the standings.
Making her first U.S. Nationals appearance as a member of John Force Racing, DeJoria returned to the site of one of the biggest victories of her career sporting a special throwback scheme honoring team owner John Force. Her Bandero Café Chevrolet SS carried the look of Force’s iconic Night Stalker Funny Car for the weekend, paying tribute to his earliest years competing in the category.
DeJoria opened qualifying Friday evening with a strong 3.947-second pass at 329.26 mph, earning one bonus point for clocking the fourth-quickest run of the session. She remained in the top half of the field throughout the weekend despite encountering dropped cylinders during the next two qualifying rounds. During Q3, an engine explosion damaged the Night Stalker body, but the John Force Racing team worked quickly to prepare DeJoria’s backup body with the tribute scheme in time for Monday’s eliminations.
Sunday’s opening round of the Funny Car All-Star Callout saw DeJoria line up opposite Ron Capps. DeJoria powered straight down the groove in 3.971 seconds to defeat the three-time world champion and advance to the semifinals, where tire smoke ended her bid for the specialty-event win against Matt Hagan. She returned for the fifth and final qualifying session and recorded a clean 4.010-second pass to secure the No. 6 starting position.
Starting from the top half of the field and with the advantage of lane choice, DeJoria drew Chad Green in the opening round of eliminations. Green was first off of the starting line and held the early lead, but DeJoria quickly drove around him and pulled away for the win with a 3.937-second pass at 326.16 mph, her quickest run of the weekend.
The round win set up a second-round meeting with teammate Jack Beckman. DeJoria was in pursuit when her Bandero Café machine struck the tires near the 400-foot mark, forcing her to lift off the throttle while Beckman made a clean 3.924-second pass in the opposite lane to advance.
“Racing at the U.S. Nationals as part of the John Force Racing team is a dream come true, and the icing on the cake was that all JFR Funny Cars got to run throwback tribute liveries,” said DeJoria. “My favorite livery of John’s has always been the Night Stalker, and it was really cool to be able to have that on our Bandero Café Funny Car here at the biggest race of the year. The fans loved it; the response was great. Not to mention, I got to race it at the event where I beat my now boss, John Force, for the 60th anniversary U.S. Nationals title. Having both him and my dad by my side all weekend was really special. I wish we could’ve finished the weekend in the winner’s circle but having them both here meant a lot.
“I absolutely love this event; it’s always been one of my favorite races. We made some good runs this weekend, although we did have our first blowup as a team. Fortunately, it spared the chassis; the body, not so much, but the greatest thing about being at JFR is that they do everything in-house. They were able to hustle and get our backup body ready to go, and we got to run the Night Stalker scheme on race day.”
With the NHRA regular season complete, DeJoria will enter the Countdown to the Championship from the No. 7 position as the points reset ahead of the six-race title chase.
“I’m looking forward to the Countdown,” added DeJoria. “The points get reset, and it really puts us all on an even playing field. What’s different about this year is that we’re starting with two brand-new stops on the schedule. We’ll go to Martin (MI) and then to Rockingham (NC), where none of us have any runs or data, so it’ll really level things out and give everyone the opportunity to make some early headway in the Countdown.”
The Countdown to the Championship gets underway with the inaugural NHRA Great Lakes Nationals at US 131 Motorsports Park in Martin, Mich., Sept. 18-20.
This story was originally published on September 9, 2026. 
