Fresh from her season-first Funny Car victory at Bristol, Tenn., Alexis DeJoria continued her momentum, capturing the No. 1 starting position for last Sunday’s eliminations at the Dodge //SRT NHRA Nationals in Las Vegas.. 

She drove her Bandero Tequila Toyota Camry for DC Motorsports to her second straight top-qualifying berth with a 3.896-second pass at 327.03 mph. 

“That was a very straight run, just on a rail. It was great,” De Joria said.   

“It’s great to come here off a win. This is a track we’ve had success at before, winning here twice. I think we’re hot right now,” she said. “Everything came together for us in Bristol, and that was something we needed to do. We’re in a really good spot now. It would be nice to go out with a victory.” 

Scoring back-to-back top qualifiers, she said, is “just like a dream. This is everything that we had hoped for. It’s finally coming together, getting hot toward the end of the season, the last couple race. I mean, the motivation that we had from this last race – getting the No. 1 qualifier and winning the race – really catapulted us into this Vegas race. 

“I’m just proud of the guys. We made it down the track every run. Though consistency is the key, tomorrow is a new day. So you never know. But I’m just in awe right now, and I’m soaking it all up. And finally everything’s coming together for ourselves at just the right time, man. All the planets have aligned. I can’t thank Del and Nicky [crew chiefs Worsham and Boninfante] and my whole team [enough] and all the fans who support us enough. Man. We’re doing it.” 

“We did have a little bit of luck on our side, but we’re not just getting lucky. This isn’t just a fly-by-night thing. We’re here to stay. We’re a competitive team. We’ve all won at some point in our careers. Nicky and Del have both won championships as crew chief and driver. So this is like the Dream team. It just feels right. It feels good. And I’m just really happy that I came back to NHRA drag racing, because this is where I belong. 

On a scale of one to 10, De Joria said her confidence level is 11 – “but really, for me, it’s like a huge weight has been lifted off of my shoulders. At the end of the day, I want these wins, and I want the success to pass on to my team and to my guys, who work their asses off every day for this team – and it shows. And I want to bring more of that to them.” 

For De Joria, the recent success is about laying a foundation for an even stronger 2022 campaign. 

“All this is preparation for next year. We’re going to hit it really hard next year,” she said. 

For the immediate future, the two-time Las Vegas winner said, “Vegas has been very good to me. Winning at Pomona would just be icing on the cake.”