CHARLOTTE, N.C. (March 29, 2015)— The NHRA Four-Wide Nationals- the only race during the 24-event Mello Yello Drag Race series where four cars battle it out at a time- proved to be a tough event for Alexis DeJoria and the Patrón XO Cafe Incendio Toyota Camry Funny Car team.
Friday’s two qualifying sessions were cancelled due to persistent rain, leaving teams with only two qualifying attempts on Saturday. The loss of two rounds meant teams were left without having the opportunity to make a run down each of the four lanes before Sunday’s eliminations. The Patrón XO Cafe Incendio team made their two qualifying runs in lanes two and three, and after struggling to get down the track both times and qualifying in the No. 15 spot, they went into Sunday without having made a full pass and without the advantage of lane choice.
DeJoria and the Incendio team were assigned lane one in the first round of eliminations. In their quad, they faced John Force, Robert Hight, and Tony Pedregon. Unfortunately for the Incendio team, their struggles from qualifying carried over into Sunday morning. The Toyota Camry smoked the tires right at the step of the throttle while the other three cars were able to pull ahead and cross the stripe first, eliminating the Patrón XO Cafe Incendio team.
“The Four-Wide started off pretty crazy. We only had two qualifying sessions due to rain, so we didn’t get a chance at each lane, and then during the two runs we did make, we couldn’t get the car down the track,” said Alexis DeJoria, a four-time four-wide competitor.
“Today we were in lane one, and in qualifying we were in lanes two and three so we pretty much just tried to take a good guess at it every time we went up there. Unfortunately, we smoked the tires right at the hit. I looked up and nobody was even close to me; they were all way down the track. I pedaled it one more time before that but I realized my competition was so far down the track and I’d never be able to catch up, so it was kind of pointless to continue to pedal. I didn’t want to blow the car up for no reason.”
“This just wasn’t our race, but we’re really looking forward to Vegas. That’s a great track for us- we’ve done well there in the past,” she said, referring to the team’s win in Las Vegas one-year prior, and before that, semi-final appearances on the Vegas dragstrip. “We’re going to stay after on Monday and test. Let’s just call this weekend a wash and move on.”
Alexis DeJoria and the Kalitta Motorsports Patrón XO Cafe Incendio Toyota Camry Funny Car team compete next at the 16th annual SummitRacing.com NHRA Nationals at The Strip at Las Vega Motor Speedway, April 10-12. They are ranked 10th in the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series Countdown to the Championship points system with 193 points. For more information, please visit www.alexisdejoria.com, Follow Us on Twitter @ADRnhra, or Like Us on Facebook Alexis DeJoria
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 racecar driver, competing in the nitro Funny Car class on the Kalitta Motorsports team. Alexis drives the Patrόn XO Cafe Incendio-sponsored 2015 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.