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<\/p>\nAlexis DeJoria will have a cadre of friends and family cheering her on at the Sept. 4-7 Cornwell Quality Tools NHRA U.S. Nationals and she\u2019s hoping the Night Stalker tribute paint scheme on her John Force Racing Bandero Caf\u00e9 Chevrolet SS Funny Car will provide that little something extra to put her in the Indianapolis Raceway Park winner\u2019s circle on Labor Day Monday.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was really excited when I found out the other two John Force Racing Funny Cars were doing special liveries and wanted to be part of it,\u201d said DeJoria. \u201cSo, I asked if our team could do the Night Stalker paint scheme that was John Force\u2019s very first nitro Funny Car back in the mid-1970s. The Bandero Caf\u00e9 car is already black, but it\u2019s just the fact that the Night Stalker is one of the coolest liveries I\u2019ve seen from John Force\u2019s camp. More than anything, I wanted to do it to show support for my new boss and my new team.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was 1973 when John Force attempted to make his Funny Car debut in a rear-engine chain-drive entry at Irwindale (Calif.) Raceway. Force named it Night Stalker and created the unique paint scheme based on the 1972 made-for-TV movie starring the late Darren McGavin. It was a less than successful venture but Force went on to win the 2009 Night Under Fire at Summit Motorsports Park in Norwalk, Ohio, running a Night Stalker tribute paint scheme.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were at the shop one day and Alexis said the car her dad always loved the most was the Night Stalker,\u201d said Force. \u201cThat was the rear-engined, chain-drive car with the driver out front that Jack Chrisman built and that I drove briefly in the early 1970s. The Night Stalker TV movie was big at the time, so we painted \u2018Night Stalker\u2019 with a caped goblin on the side of it. Alexis loved the idea so that\u2019s the paint scheme her Bandero Caf\u00e9 Chevy will be running at the Cornwell Quality Tools NHRA U.S. Nationals.\u201d<\/p>\n
DeJoria is currently eighth in the point standings and only 34 points out of sixth place going into the Cornwell Quality Tools U.S. Nationals, the final event of the 2026 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series regular season. Each round of eliminations will be worth 30 points instead of the standard 20 points.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf there\u2019s one trophy above all that a team wants, it\u2019s the one from the U.S. Nationals,\u201d DeJoria said. \u201cMy team and I won the 60th anniversary of the U.S. Nationals and that was special due to that fact that there will never be another 60th. The same can be said of this year\u2019s 75th.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Saturday, Sept. 5, DeJoria will sign autographs at the Cornwell Tools display on the midway from 10-10:30 a.m.; at 11 a.m., she will participate in the PlayNHRA Funny Car All-Star Call Out selection show in the Top Eliminator Club. On Sunday, Sept. 6, DeJoria will sign autographs at the Mission Foods display on the midway from 9:30-10 a.m.; at 11 a.m., she will be interviewed on the NHRA Midway Stage with Top Fuel driver Ida Zetterstrom.<\/p>\n
NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series qualifying will feature one round at 6:15 p.m. ET on Friday, Sept. 4, two rounds at 12:30 and 3:30 p.m. ET on Saturday, Sept. 5 and the final two rounds of qualifying on Sunday, Sept. 6 at 12 and 2:45 p.m. Final eliminations are scheduled for 10 a.m. ET on Monday, Sept 7.<\/p>\n
The first round of the Funny Car All-Star Callout takes place at 12:45 p.m. ET on Sunday, with the semifinals at 2:15 p.m. and the final round at 3:40 p.m. A special broadcast of the Callout takes place on FS1 at 7 p.m. ET on Sunday.<\/p>\n
Television coverage includes qualifying action on FS1 at 3 and 10:30 p.m. ET on Sunday, and eliminations at 12 p.m. on FS1 on Monday, shifting to FOX at 2 p.m.<\/p>\n
This story was originally published on September 2, 2026. <\/p>\n
The post Alexis DeJoria to Race John Force\u2019s Legendary Night Stalker Scheme at U.S. Nationals<\/a> first appeared on Drag Illustrated<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Alexis DeJoria will have a cadre of friends and family cheering her on at the Sept. 4-7 Cornwell Quality Tools NHRA U.S. Nationals and she\u2019s hoping the Night Stalker tribute paint scheme on her John Force Racing Bandero Caf\u00e9 Chevrolet SS Funny Car will provide that little something extra to put her in the Indianapolis […]<\/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-104695","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104695","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=104695"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104695\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104695"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104695"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104695"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}