MADISON, Ill. (September 28, 2014)— After experiencing much success throughout the 2014 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series, the 3rd annual AAA Insurance NHRA Midwest Nationals was an unusually rough weekend for Alexis DeJoria and the Kalitta Motorsports Patrón XO Cafe Toyota Camry Funny Car team.
With three wins, record setting runs, and two No. 1 qualifiers thus far this season, it’s been quite some time since the XO Cafe team left a racetrack without either round win points, or qualifying points. Unfortunately, that was the case this weekend at Gateway Motorsports Park, located in the shadows of the famed St. Louis arch.
Throughout the first three qualifying rounds, the black and purple team struggled to get their Toyota Camry down the 1,000-foot stretch, which put them in the nerve-racking position of having to rely on the fourth and final round of qualifying to get into the Sunday elimination show.
Thankfully, in Q4, the XO Cafe Camry made a full, clean pass, running 4.108-seconds at 298.93-mph, which put them in the No. 10 qualifying spot. The first round found DeJoria matched up versus No. 7 qualifier Matt Hagan- the pairing was chosen as ESPN’s ‘Marquee Matchup.’
DeJoria and Hagan were first pair up, kicking off Funny Car eliminations. Both cars made full passes, but Hagan had the slight lead the whole way down the dragstrip, and crossed the stripe at 4.158-seconds, beating DeJoria’s 4.170-sec run.
“Well we definitely needed to go past first round today but it just didn’t happen,” said DeJoria, who currently sits seventh in the Funny Car points rankings. “Fortunately, we did qualify with a nice 4.10 last night in round four. We went out there today and gave it our best, but just got outran.”
“Luckily, we’ve got three races left. There are still races and rounds to win, and jockeying for positions. We head to Reading next, and we’ll hope for some good runs out there.”
Alexis DeJoria and the Kalitta Motorsports Patrón XO Cafe Toyota Camry Funny Car team compete next at the 30th annual NHRA Nationals at Maple Grove Raceway in Reading, Penn., October 3-5. For more information, please visit www.alexisdejoria.com, Follow Us on Twitter @ADR_Nitro771, or Like Us on Facebook Alexis DeJoria.
TV Coverage
Eliminations
September 14, 8:30PM-11:30PM 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 the Patrόn XO Cafe-sponsored 2014 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.