Gerber Collision & Glass NHRA Route 66 Nationals presented by PEAK Performance

Gerber Collision & Glass NHRA Route 66 Nationals presented by PEAK Performance

Event 6 of 20

Route 66 Raceway

Joliet, Ill.

May 16 – 18, 2025

Alexis DeJoria Makes Season-Best Pass at Route 66 Nationals

One of the closest Funny Car races of the opening round of eliminations at the Route 66 Nationals marked the end of Alexis DeJoria’s weekend at Route 66 Raceway Sunday morning. DeJoria made her quickest pass of the season since joining JCM Racing in her first-round match with Ron Capps, providing DeJoria and her Bandero Café team with a boost of optimism as the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series rolls into the summer months.

DeJoria’s qualifying results also showed signs that the JCM Racing Funny Car program is making strides. After smoking the tires early in the first qualifying attempt, DeJoria in her Mike ‘Zippy’ Neff and Todd Smith-tuned Bandero Café Charger threw down a 3.997-second pass at 324.05 mph, the first 3-second Funny Car pass of the weekend. That run held up as the second-quickest pass of the second qualifying session, giving DeJoria two bonus points. The third qualifying session on Saturday also served as the first round of the Mission #2Fast2Tasty Funny Car Challenge, which DeJoria earned a spot in when she reached the semifinals of the most recent event on tour, the Four-Wide Nationals in Charlotte. DeJoria launched hard against Matt Hagan, clocking early numbers better than her Friday night pass, but lost traction down track and had to lift. She broke traction early in the run in the final session and ended up No. 11 on the final qualifying order.

In Sunday’s first round of eliminations, DeJoria paired up with Capps, a driver she’s faced more than 30 times in her career. DeJoria charged hard off the starting line and powered to a 3.913 E.T. at 330.23, her quickest and fastest pass of the weekend. Capps reached the finish line first, though, winning with a 3.905-second effort.

“It was a bit of a challenging weekend, but we ran our best E.T. of the year with this team,” DeJoria said. “I'm really proud and grateful for this amazing team that I've joined this year and the amount of work and dedication that they've brought to the table in such a short amount of time. We're creeping up on it. Our crew chiefs, Mike Neff and Todd Smith, have been very methodical about the input that they put in the tune-ups, not going over center. It's really smart and we're starting to get there. There's so much left on the table with this car.

“We had a clean weekend,” DeJoria continued. “The car is in good shape. The parts are in good shape. We've got everything we need and now we're going to really start to step it up. I know I've got a great car underneath me and a great team in my corner, and it's just a matter of time.”

DeJoria and the Bandero Café team will look for more progress when the NHRA Mission Foods Series returns to New England Dragway, May 30-June 1, for the New England Nationals in Epping, N.H.

Qualified: No. 11 (3.997 E.T. at 324.05 MPH)

Elimination Round Results:

E1: 3.913 E.T. at 330.23 MPH defeated by Ron Capps 3.905 E.T. at 331.69 MPH

NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series Funny Car Point Standings (Unofficial):

1 Austin Prock 506

2 Jack Beckman 465

3 Matt Hagan 443

4 Paul Lee 394

5 Ron Capps 347

6 Chad Green 329

7 Cruz Pedregon 294

8 Dan Wilkerson 286

9 Bob Tasca III 273

10 J.R. Todd 269

11 Alexis DeJoria 250