EPPING, N.H. (June 7, 2026) – While she was just inches short of advancing to the semifinals on race day at the NHRA New England Nationals, it was abundantly clear that Alexis DeJoria and the Bandero Café Chevrolet SS Funny Car team have found their rhythm, and with the Bristol, Tenn. event just days away, DeJoria appears to be on the brink of her first win with her new John Force Racing team.
Led by crew chiefs Mike Neff and Jonnie Lindberg, DeJoria and the Bandero Café team made three clean and quick passes out of four during qualifying. A 3.929-second at 312.42 mph run on Friday night placed them on the provisional pole to earn the event’s No. 1 Clawifier Award, which came with a lobster dinner for the team. DeJoria maintained her top-seeded position throughout Saturday’s first session, and clocked a 3.934 E.T. in Q4, which held up to be the third-quickest pass of the round, but her JFR teammates outpaced her Q2 pass in that final session to place her third heading into Sunday’s eliminations.
In what was named Funny Car’s Marquee Matchup, DeJoria had the starting line advantage over No. 14 qualifier Cruz Pedregon and drove her 12,000-horsepower machine straight down the groove in 3.998 seconds for the win while Pedregon had problems in the opposite lane. In the quarterfinals, DeJoria faced points leader Ron Capps and used her .056 reaction time to score the early lead over the multi-time world champ. The Bandero Café Chevy was ahead of Capps nearly the entire way down the track until Capps was able to edge past just before the finish line beams and pull ahead for the close win, defeating DeJoria by just one thousandth of a second.
“I think sometimes it’s just about getting the right opportunity to be confident and flourish,” said DeJoria, a two-time finalist through the first eight events. “Unfortunately, I can’t say that we got the Wally this weekend, but there are some really good takeaways. We were the No. 1 qualifier on Friday, got some good points, and earned a lobster dinner, which we’ll enjoy as a team when we’re all together in Indy. We got bumped out of the No. 1 spot on Saturday by Jack and Jordan, but if anyone’s going to do it, it might as well be my teammates, especially since we all work off each other. I was proud to cheer both cars on during the semis and now it’ll be an all-JFR final.
“I had consistent lights all weekend, I think my worst was an .085, but it just feels like everything is coming together. I was on a mission to win this race. My East Coast family is all here, we haven’t won a race in a long time, and there are just so many things about this track that I love, so I thought man, it was definitely our time today. But we gave it our all, we made it down the track in both lanes, and thank God Bristol is coming up soon. Honestly, it can’t come soon enough. I just feel really good about everything and where our program is headed, and I’m already looking forward to coming back here next year.”
DeJoria, a part-time resident of Rhode Island, leaves her East Coast home facility ranked seventh in the Funny Car standings. Up next for the Bandero Café Chevrolet SS team is the NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals at Bristol Dragway, the site of DeJoria’s last Funny Car event win (2021) and career-first final in 2012. Qualifying gets underway on Friday, June 12 at 6 p.m. ET.
Qualified: No. 3 (3.929 E.T. at 312.42 MPH)
Elimination Round Results:
E1: 3.998 E.T. at 326.40 MPH defeated Cruz Pedregon 4.397 E.T. at 207.21 MPH
E2: 3.953 E.T. at 328.54 MPH defeated by Ron Capps 3.938 E.T. at 327.11 MPH
NHRA New England Nationals
NHRA New England Nationals
NHRA New England Nationals
NHRA New England Nationals
NHRA New England Nationals
NHRA New England Nationals
NHRA New England Nationals
NHRA New England Nationals
NHRA New England Nationals
NHRA New England Nationals
NHRA New England Nationals
NHRA New England Nationals
NHRA New England Nationals
NHRA New England Nationals
NHRA New England Nationals
NHRA New England Nationals
NHRA New England Nationals
NHRA New England Nationals
NHRA New England Nationals
NHRA New England Nationals
NHRA New England Nationals
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Led by crew chiefs Mike Neff and Jonnie Lindberg, DeJoria and the Bandero Café team made three clean and quick passes out of four during qualifying. A 3.929-second at 312.42 mph run on Friday night placed them on the provisional pole to earn the event’s No. 1 Clawifier Award, which came with a lobster dinner for the team. DeJoria maintained her top-seeded position throughout Saturday’s first session, and clocked a 3.934 E.T. in Q4, which held up to be the third-quickest pass of the round, but her JFR teammates outpaced her Q2 pass in that final session to place her third heading into Sunday’s eliminations.
In what was named Funny Car’s Marquee Matchup, DeJoria had the starting line advantage over No. 14 qualifier Cruz Pedregon and drove her 12,000-horsepower machine straight down the groove in 3.998 seconds for the win while Pedregon had problems in the opposite lane. In the quarterfinals, DeJoria faced points leader Ron Capps and used her .056 reaction time to score the early lead over the multi-time world champ. The Bandero Café Chevy was ahead of Capps nearly the entire way down the track until Capps was able to edge past just before the finish line beams and pull ahead for the close win, defeating DeJoria by just one thousandth of a second.
“I think sometimes it’s just about getting the right opportunity to be confident and flourish,” said DeJoria, a two-time finalist through the first eight events. “Unfortunately, I can’t say that we got the Wally this weekend, but there are some really good takeaways. We were the No. 1 qualifier on Friday, got some good points, and earned a lobster dinner, which we’ll enjoy as a team when we’re all together in Indy. We got bumped out of the No. 1 spot on Saturday by Jack and Jordan, but if anyone’s going to do it, it might as well be my teammates, especially since we all work off each other. I was proud to cheer both cars on during the semis and now it’ll be an all-JFR final.
“I had consistent lights all weekend, I think my worst was an .085, but it just feels like everything is coming together. I was on a mission to win this race. My East Coast family is all here, we haven’t won a race in a long time, and there are just so many things about this track that I love, so I thought man, it was definitely our time today. But we gave it our all, we made it down the track in both lanes, and thank God Bristol is coming up soon. Honestly, it can’t come soon enough. I just feel really good about everything and where our program is headed, and I’m already looking forward to coming back here next year.”
DeJoria, a part-time resident of Rhode Island, leaves her East Coast home facility ranked seventh in the Funny Car standings. Up next for the Bandero Café Chevrolet SS team is the NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals at Bristol Dragway, the site of DeJoria’s last Funny Car event win (2021) and career-first final in 2012. Qualifying gets underway on Friday, June 12 at 6 p.m. ET.
Qualified: No. 3 (3.929 E.T. at 312.42 MPH)
Elimination Round Results:
E1: 3.998 E.T. at 326.40 MPH defeated Cruz Pedregon 4.397 E.T. at 207.21 MPH
E2: 3.953 E.T. at 328.54 MPH defeated by Ron Capps 3.938 E.T. at 327.11 MPH
NHRA New England Nationals
NHRA New England Nationals
NHRA New England Nationals
NHRA New England Nationals
NHRA New England Nationals
NHRA New England Nationals
NHRA New England Nationals
NHRA New England Nationals
NHRA New England Nationals
NHRA New England Nationals
NHRA New England Nationals
NHRA New England Nationals
NHRA New England Nationals
NHRA New England Nationals
NHRA New England Nationals
NHRA New England Nationals
NHRA New England Nationals
NHRA New England Nationals
NHRA New England Nationals
NHRA New England Nationals
NHRA New England Nationals
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