Alexis DeJoria Racing Qualifying Report- 34th annual Mile High NHRA Nationals

Alexis DeJoria: Driver of the Kalitta Motorsports Tequila Patrón Toyota Camry

The Results:

• Q1: 4.300 ET at 292.58 MPH
• Q2: 4.122 ET at 307.02 MPH
• Q3: 4.716 ET at 182.33 MPH
• Q4: 5.429 ET at 134.75 MPH

The Competition:

No. 4 Alexis DeJoria with lane choice vs. No. 13 Courtney Force

Quotables:

Alexis DeJoria, Driver

“We have definitely stepped up our performance from last year here at Bandimere Speedway. We qualified fourth with our 4.122 [seconds, elapsed time] run in Q2, which is pretty stout given the tricky conditions here. That was only our second run ever on that new chassis and we were able to make a solid run, which is great. That run kept us in the number four spot all weekend. The track has been hot and the altitude makes it difficult to make horsepower and create downforce, but there have been some stellar runs out there this weekend- ours being one of them. It seems as if no matter where we qualify, we always get matched up against tough cars, and tomorrow is no exception. I’m running against good friend Courtney Force in round one and it’s anybody’s game- they’ve got a good car and we’ve got a good car, so we’ll see. We’ll duke it out on the starting line, and then we’ll probably hug it out on the top end.” 

 

Tommy DeLago, Crew Chief

“We ran our new chassis for the first time this weekend and it’s looking to be running pretty well so far. It seems as if it’s easier for Alexis to drive, and easier to keep in the groove. It responds to her steering input better than our old chassis did, and I can already see that the car is going straighter than it had been over the past few races. This car is a lot closer to what I ran when I won the World Championship in 2011. I have a renewed vigor with the new engine combination and the new chassis- the way the car has responded up here in the mountains has been very promising. It’s been a pretty good weekend so far. We’ve qualified higher than we have all season. You never know what’s going to happen on race day, but I think Team Patrón has a good shot.”

TV Schedule

Qualifying

July 20, 10PM-12AM EST

ESPN2

Eliminations

July 21, 6PM-9PM EST

ESPN2

About Alexis DeJoria

Alexis DeJoria, daughter of the famed John Paul DeJoria, co-founder of John Paul Mitchell Systems and proud owner of Tequila Patrόn, is a professional NHRA race car driver, competing in the nitro Funny Car class on the Kalitta Motorsports team. Alexis drives a Tequila Patrόn-sponsored 2013 Toyota Camry. Alexis, who had all the opportunity in the world to pursue any type of career, felt strongly about following her passion, and her need for adrenaline drove her to pursue the unlikely profession of auto-racing. The determination to ‘blaze her own trail’ continues to drive her and push her to higher levels in male dominated sport of drag racing.

About Kalitta Motorsports
Based in Ypsilanti, Mich., Kalitta Motorsports is a Top Fuel and Funny Car drag racing team in the NHRA (National Hot Rod Association) Mello Yello Drag Racing Series. The team was founded and is owned by drag racing icon Connie “the Bounty Hunter” Kalitta. For more than 50 years, Connie has been involved in the sport as a driver, tuner, and an owner. Kalitta Motorsports is one of the most successful teams in the history of auto racing with five world championships and over 50 national event titles in five different professional drag racing sanctioning bodies since it was established by Connie in 1959.