our side is that none of us are newbies. Even the
young guys on the crew are old salts – everyone
has been out here before.”
DeJoria’s team was in Gainesville in early
March ready to try to get in the Winner’s Circle for
the first time at the track when NHRA canceled
the race because of the coronavirus pandemic.
They’ve since suspended racing until June, and
will start the season off back in Gainesville at the
Gatornationals, and that’s something DeJoria is
excited about.
“We used to live outside of Gainesville when
I raced in Alcohol Funny Car, so we have a lot
of good memories there,” she says. “I’ve never
won there and it’s definitely on my bucket list
of races to win.”
DeJoria is known for driving a Funny Car with
Patrón Tequila on the side, but this year she’s
got some new sponsors. And not just new to her,
but new to the sport of professional drag racing.
ROKiT Phones is a glasses-free 3D mobile phone
provider that DeJoria says is big in Europe.
“They’re trying to stretch out their fanbase in
the United States, and I thought, ‘Well, what
would be better than being on a professional,
American racing team?’” she says.
In addition to ROKiT Phones, she’s also boast-
ing the ABK Beer logo on her Toyota Camry
Funny Car. ABK Beer is one of the oldest beer
breweries in the world, starting in 1308 in Ba-
varia, Germany.
“We hope to have tasting bars at different race-
tracks where people can try out the beer, and
hopefully one day have a beer garden,” DeJoria
reveals. “That would be incredible. The product
really is incredible.”
And DeJoria’s favorite beer, you ask? Hell. It’s
touted as a light, bright, and very satisfying beer.
After a two-year break, DeJoria was eager to
get back in her nitro-burning Funny Car, and says
that the hiatus definitely put some things about
her racing career in perspective.
“When you’re in it [racing], it’s hustle and bus-
tle and go-time,” she says. “It’s eat, sleep, and
breathe racing. It can be hard to appreciate it.
My break allowed me to look at things through
an outside point of view.”
The Austin, Texas, resident says she was a little
worried about getting back in the car after her
two-season break, but after a pass down the track,
everything came back to her like second-nature.
“Even in the offseason when you’re out of the
car for maybe a solid month and a half, and you
get that ‘Whoa, what’s it going to feel like’ feeling
of getting back in the car,” DeJoria says. “It’s not
like you’re scared, but you forget the feeling. The
first time I made a pass this year, I was like ‘Man,
these are pretty fast! I forgot how fast these are!’”
DeJoria is trying something this year to engage
more with her fans off the track. During every
warm-up in the pits, they’ve been whacking the
throttle of her Funny Car, something Scott Palmer
is known for doing with his Top Fuel dragster.
“The fans love it, my guys love it,” DeJoria
says. “It’s been a riot! It doesn’t serve much of
a purpose anymore, but it adds a little more
excitement and I love doing it. Anything to get
a little rowdy!” – AL LYS O N J OH N S ON
F
AN-FAVORITE FUNNY CAR driver Alexis DeJoria
stepped away from the world of profes-
sional drag racing at the end of the 2017
season. She said she always knew she’d
be back, and late last year she announced
that she would be returning to full-time
driving in 2020.
“Honestly, I didn’t want to wait too long,” she
says. “It seemed like all the right things were
lined up for us to put together a plan and a team
that we had been hoping to do for a while, and it
just seemed like it was the right time to do that.”
And that team is stacked with some heavy-hit-
ters, including crew chiefs Del Worsham and
Nicky Boninfante. Worsham, an NHRA legend
in his own right, has had a massive impact on
DeJoria’s racing career, and it was important that
he be part of her 2020 team.
“Del alone is just a remarkable racer and crew
chief. I’ve had a long-standing relationship with
him and his family – they’re really great people,”
DeJoria says. “He taught me how to drive a Funny
Car, and he was my very first crew chief at Kalitta
Motorsports. He’s always been the one – no matter
if he was my crew chief or teammate – that I could
go to with any issue.”
The team had an impressive first weekend out
in Pomona earlier this year, qualifying 11th and
making it to the semifinals. They qualified 10th
in Phoenix, and had a first-round loss to Tim
Wilkerson.
“We’re not the fastest car out there right now,”
DeJoria admits. “We’re just starting out and gain-
ing information. But the one thing we do have on