Alexis DeJoria, driver of the John Force Racing Bandero Café Funny Car, had one of the most consistent cars on the property this weekend at the Texas NHRA FallNationals at Texas Motorplex. After collecting several valuable bonus points throughout qualifying, the part-time Austin, Texas resident raced to a quarterfinal finish in eliminations on Sunday in front of a home crowd.
After running into tire smoke in their first qualifying attempt of the weekend, the Bandero Café Funny Car team, led by Mike Neff and Jonnie Lindberg, found their groove and tuned DeJoria to a top-three performance in each of the remaining sessions.
On Friday evening, DeJoria delivered a stout 3.873-second run at 333.09 mph, the third-quickest of the session. She followed it up on Saturday with a 3.875 at 336.00, the best performance of the heat. In the final qualifying session, DeJoria’s Chevrolet SS Funny Car crossed the stripe with a pass of 3.878 at 331.93, earning bonus points for making the second-quickest run of the session.
Entering race day from the No. 4 qualifier spot, 91.75% of Drag Race Bracket Bonanza participants picked DeJoria to win over No. 13 qualifier Dave Richards in the opening round of eliminations. DeJoria was first off the line and powered to a solid run of 3.902 seconds at 331.56 mph to secure the win. In the quarterfinals, she delivered an even quicker pass of 3.890 seconds at 314.66 mph, but J.R. Todd’s starting-line advantage allowed him to advance on a holeshot victory.
“Man, I love coming back to this racetrack,” said DeJoria, who made her Funny Car debut at the Motorplex in 2011. “It’s one of my home tracks. I’ve got West Coast family, I’ve got East Coast family, and I live in Texas. So, I can actually claim a few different tracks. Billy Meyer (the owner of Texas Motorplex) and his family put on a great show. This track is awesome. We qualified really well and got some really good bonus points. What can I say? Three back-to-back runs in the 3.80s, that’s fantastic. There’s always such a good crowd here. I love to see everybody. Our first-round performance was good. We ran a 3.90 and got the win. In the second round, we ran a 3.89 and didn’t get the win, unfortunately.”
The Bandero Café team will get another chance at a commemorative 75th anniversary Wally the NHRA Nevada Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, October 30 – November 1.
This story was originally published on October 20, 2026. 
