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<\/p>\nFor the second time in the first six races of the 2026 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series season, Alexis DeJoria drove her John Force Racing Bandero Caf\u00e9 Chevrolet SS Funny Car to the final round Sunday afternoon at the Gerber Collision & Glass NHRA Route 66 Nationals presented by PEAK. It was a rematch of the final round at the season-opening NHRA Gatornationals, with DeJoria losing a close race to Chad Green. Between a Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge win on Saturday and a runner-up finish on Sunday, DeJoria is proud of what her team accomplished at Route 66 Raceway. She maintained her No. 6 position in the Funny Car points.
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DeJoria kicked off Friday qualifying on a promising note as she recorded a 4.014-second pass at 326.08 mph to take the No. 6 spot. She improved to a 3.994 E.T. at 329.42 mph in Q2 to wrap up Friday in the No. 10 position. In the third qualifying session on Saturday, which was also the first round of the Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge, DeJoria posted a consistent 4.015 E.T. at 323.35 mph to defeat J.R. Todd. She then scored her second career #2Fast2Tasty title when John Force Racing teammate Jordan Vandergriff encountered mechanical issues and couldn\u2019t stage his car for the final round.
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Racing from the No. 12 position on the ladder, DeJoria faced 2025 NHRA Rookie of the Year Spencer Hyde in the first round of eliminations on Sunday. She powered to a 3.947 E.T. at 326.48 mph to get past a tire-smoking Hyde and earn lane choice for the next round against Dave Richards. DeJoria left the starting line first and set low E.T. of the round, a 4.005-second pass at 327.98 mph, to advance to the semifinals for the second consecutive race. Crew chiefs Mike Neff and Jonnie Lindberg provided DeJoria with a consistent machine again in the semis, as she laid down a 4.006 E.T. at 326.56 mph to eliminate four-time world champion Matt Hagan and his 4.061 E.T.
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In a rematch of the Gainesville final round, DeJoria squared off against Chad Green to decide the Route 66 Nationals winner. It was a side-by-side race from start to finish, though DeJoria\u2019s 3.965 E.T. at 328.86 mph came up just .026 seconds short to Green\u2019s 3.945 E.T.
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\u201cCome race day, I just had a feeling,\u201d DeJoria said. \u201cI felt like this was our race, and it sure was until the very end. Out of eight runs we made this weekend, seven of those went from A to B, solid, consistently. We may have not been the quickest, fastest car on the racetrack every run, but we were the most consistent car. In the finals, we ran well and I had a good light, so there\u2019s nothing to hang our heads about. We got a lot of good points this weekend. It\u2019s our second final already this year. I\u2019m just heartbroken for the guys. Of course I want to win, but I want us to win as a team because I see how hard they work day in and day out.\u201d
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Encouraged by the consistency her team has displayed over the last few races, DeJoria is confident her next win is coming soon. She credits Neff and Lindberg for the program they\u2019ve developed in such a short time together at John Force Racing.
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\u201cI feel like I got a head start working with Mike Neff for a year before we came over to JFR this season,\u201d DeJoria said. \u201cEverything really came together adding Jonnie into the mix. When the timing\u2019s right, the timing\u2019s right, and the timing was right this year. It was written in the stars. We didn\u2019t get that trophy today, but I can tell you right now, we are coming for them. There\u2019s a lot left on this table. We\u2019re a very consistent team and we\u2019re putting people on notice right now.\u201d
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With momentum on her side, DeJoria will next compete at a brand-new stop on the NHRA Mission Foods Series tour, the inaugural NHRA Potomac Nationals, May 29-31, at Maryland International Raceway in Mechanicsville, Maryland.<\/p>\n
This story was originally published on May 18, 2026. <\/p>\n
The post Consistency Carries Alexis DeJoria to Runner-Up Finish at NHRA Route 66 Nationals<\/a> first appeared on Drag Illustrated<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" For the second time in the first six races of the 2026 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series season, Alexis DeJoria drove her John Force Racing Bandero Caf\u00e9 Chevrolet SS Funny Car to the final round Sunday afternoon at the Gerber Collision & Glass NHRA Route 66 Nationals presented by PEAK. It was a rematch […]<\/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-103647","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103647","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=103647"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103647\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}