DeJORIA PUTS TOYOTA CAMRY BACK IN LAS VEGAS WINNER’S CIRCLE

LAS VEGAS, NV – Alexis DeJoria defeated Robert Hight in the finals to win Sunday’s SummitRacing.com NHRA Nationals at the Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, the second win for the Patron XO Café Toyota Camry in four races this season.

DeJoria registered the two quickest Funny Car passes of the day, first with a 4.071-second run to defeat Matt Hagan in the opening round and then with an event-winning 4.026 over Hight. In addition, she knocked off fellow Toyota drivers Tony Pedregon and Cruz Pedregon in the second and third rounds.

“Truthfully, at the beginning of the day I was a little down on myself after we qualified 12th and I really just wanted to win that first round and get past Matt Hagan,” said DeJoria. “We really gained some confidence with that win and our Patron XO Café Toyota Camry was awesome. I had a great car that could win rounds and that’s what we did.”

It was a strong day overall for the Camry contingent with Cruz Pedregon advancing to the semi-finals, while brother Tony won his first-round event against Del Worsham. In fact, the only time a Camry lost in Sunday’s eliminations was to another Toyota – as Cruz Pedregon also defeated Chad Head in the opening round.

Antron Brown led the way for the Toyota-sponsored Top Fuel drivers as he advanced to the semi-finals today after beating Mike Strasburg and Shawn Langdon in the first two rounds. Langdon had previously won an all-Al Anabi Racing Toyota first-round match-up over teammate Khalid alBalooshi. Richie Crampton was defeated by J.R. Todd in his opening run.

The NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series continues at the 4-Wide Nationals at the zMAX Dragway in Charlotte, April 11-13.