Wed, 19 Aug 2026, 15:09 PM Alexis DeJoria Preview

Courtesy of Allison McCormick, ABM Communications

NHRA Brainerd Nationals
Event 13 of 20
Brainerd International Raceway
Brainerd, Minn.
August 21 - 23, 2026

ALEXIS DEJORIA Driver of the John Force Racing Bandero Café Chevrolet SS Funny Car

NHRA Brainerd Nationals Event Highlights:
• 2017 event champion

2025 Event Recap:
Qualified sixth; First round exit (defeated by Spencer Hyde in E1)

Last Event (Seattle):
Qualified third; first round exit (defeated by Dave Richards in E1)

2026 Statistics:
11 races; Two runner-up finishes, one Mission #2Fast2Tasty win

Career Statistics:
266 races; six wins, six No. 1 qualifiers

Noteworthy:
• During the 2014 event, DeJoria became the first Funny Car pilot to clock a sub-four-second run on the BIR track (3.998 E.T. during round two of eliminations)
• When DeJoria won the 2017 event, Top Fuel driver Leah Pruett also won, marking the first time women swept both nitro categories at a single event

Quotable:
“Brainerd International Raceway is a great place for me. I won there in 2017 with the Patrón Silver Funny Car during my last season with the Kalitta family. It was a very memorable race. Leah Pruett won as well, and it was the first time in history that two women swept victories in the nitro categories at an NHRA event. And we were also the first team to make a sub-four-second pass at that track. We've just always had some pretty good runs there, so I'm really looking forward to it.

“Going out early in Seattle means that it’s crunch time for our Bandero Café Funny Car team. The next race after this will be Indy and then it's the Countdown. I can't believe we’ve come this far already; it's been a great ride. I'm very excited and we’ll see everybody out there.”

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