DeJoria, Brown Take Toyota To Semis At NHRA Norwalk
NORWALK, OH – Alexis DeJoria drove her Toyota Camry to the Funny Car semifinals, with Antron Brown also advancing to the Top Fuel 
semis to lead Toyota at the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals at Summit Motorsports Park, Sunday.
DeJoria opened the day with a first-round victory over Paul Lee, chasing him down at the top end to win by .039 seconds to advance. In the second round, she’d square off with Matt Hagan. Hagan had a starting line advantage, but DeJoria chased him down by the 660’ mark on the way to the victory with a 3.952-second run in her Bandero Camry.
In the semis, DeJoria registered her fifth 3.9-second pass in six runs on the weekend, but fell just short against Cruz Pedregon, losing by.0184 seconds or approximately nine feet. DeJoria has now reached the semifinals in five of the last 11 races.
Also in Funny Car, J.R. Todd defeated Mike McIntire in an all-Toyota first-round match-up. The two had identical reaction times, but McIntire was up in smoke around 330 feet, while Todd made his quickest pass of the weekend with a 3.968 on the way to the victory. Todd was up in smoke quickly in round two, giving the win to Ron Capps.
In Top Fuel, Brown took on fellow Toyota driver Doug Kalitta in the first round. Brown had the starting line advantage and never trailed for the win. Kalitta started to drop cylinders around half track, but still ran his best pass of the event, but it wasn’t quite enough. With the win, the Matco Tools Toyota driver advanced to round two against Billy Torrence, where Brown again had the advantage on the tree and never trailed for the victory, winning by .032 seconds.
In the semis, Brown would square off with Brittany Force and once again had the starting line advantage and made a great pass with a 3.765, but Force had the difference made up early on the way to setting a track record for the win.
Shawn Langdon was eliminated in the first round by Steve Torrence.
The Camping World Drag Racing Series is off the next two weekends before resuming with the Mile High Nationals in Denver, July 16-18, the first stop of the NHRA’s Western Swing.
