Los Angeles native Alexis DeJoria is using her hometown roots as the inspiration for her and her John Force Racing Bandero Quality Tequila Chevrolet SS Funny Car team to end up in winner\u2019s circle at the conclusion of the April 8-10 NHRA Winternationals at In-N-Out Burger Pomona Dragstrip and, in doing so, capture victory in the sanctioning body\u2019s 1000th\u00a0Funny Car race.<\/p>\n
\u201c<\/strong>Pomona is where I first saw Funny Cars in person. I went there for the Winternationals when I was\u00a016,\u201d said DeJoria. \u201cI\u2019ve also gone there for swap meets and stuff for my personal car collection but that was the first time I had ever seen professional drag racing in person and John Force in particular. Winning the 1000th\u00a0Funny Car race would be incredible. There\u2019s the special trophy getting a special trophy and the prestige and obviously just the history of that racetrack. The whole year is significant for NHRA with the 75th\u00a0anniversary, but Pomona, that\u2019s the place I\u2019ve always wanted to win. I\u2019ve been to the finals (2021 In-N-Out Burger Finals), qualified number one (2014 Finals) but never got the trophy so\u00a0we\u2019ll see.\u201d<\/p>\n DeJoria is currently sixth in the Funny Car point standings after two of 20 races on the 2026 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series Calendar. She finished runner-up in her John Force Racing debut at the Gatornationals and went out in the first round at Phoenix two weeks later to JFR teammate Jordan Vandergriff.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m looking forward to racing in Pomona, looking for redemption after that finish in Phoenix,\u201d DeJoria said. \u201cWe started off really strong, went to the finals at the first race of the season and then dropped down by losing first round in Phoenix. So, I\u2019m definitely looking for redemption and Pomona\u2019s always kind of been one of my home tracks because I\u2019m a California native born and raised. I\u2019ve never won there before so that\u2019s always been on my bucket list. So, we\u2019ll see what happens this weekend but I\u2019m hoping for the best and continuing our early success with this Bandero team.\u201d<\/p>\n Bandero team crew chief Mike Neff has experienced the ultimate success at the Winternationals during his initial stint at John Force Racing. The Hemet, Calif., native was the crew chief for John Force when he won the Funny Car class in 2013 and qualified No. 1 in 2014.<\/p>\n Overall, John Force Racing drivers have won 32 times in three events at In-N-Out Pomona Dragstrip (17 times in the Winternationals, 14 times in the Finals plus John Force\u2019s win in the 50th\u00a0Anniversary NHRA Nationals in 2001).<\/p>\n \u201cI think the Bandero team is gelling really well and for a brand new team that says a lot,\u201d said DeJoria. \u201cI\u2019m very, very grateful to be on such a successful team. You can just tell early on who\u2019s going get along with who and where troubles happen, but I really haven\u2019t seen any of that go down. We\u2019re really blessed and I can\u2019t wait to see what we\u2019re going to achieve in our future, especially in the immediate future by going out there and having a good showing in Pomona.\u201d<\/p>\n The post DeJoria Hopes Hometown Edge will Help Capture NHRA\u2019s 1,000th Funny Car Race<\/a> first appeared on Drag Illustrated<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Los Angeles native Alexis DeJoria is using her hometown roots as the inspiration for her and her John Force Racing Bandero Quality Tequila Chevrolet SS Funny Car team to end up in winner\u2019s circle at the conclusion of the April 8-10 NHRA Winternationals at In-N-Out Burger Pomona Dragstrip and, in doing so, capture victory in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-103351","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103351","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103351"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103351\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}