DeJORIA, TONY PEDREGON REACH SEMI-FINALS TO PACE TOYOTA AT DENVER NHRA
DENVER, CO – Alexis DeJoria and Tony Pedregon each advanced to the semi-finals in Funny Car as Toyota Camrys 
earned two of the top four spots at the NHRA Mile-High Nationals at Bandimere Speedway Sunday.
DeJoria defeated Courtney Force in a key opening round match-up and then drove away from Tim Wilkerson in her Patr?n XO Café Incendio Toyota Camry in the second round. Facing a semi-final match-up against eventual winner Jack Beckman, DeJoria attempted to get the advantage at the tree, but red-lighted the start giving the win to Beckman.
“There’s absolutely nothing good about losing, but I’d much rather lose by trying too hard than by practically being asleep at the wheel and cutting a bad light,” said DeJoria, who climbed up to ninth-place with today’s showing. “We were on our game this weekend. It was a tough track- it was hot, it was rainy, it was everything. The good news is, I feel like I’m back on my game. The next race is Sonoma and we do really well in Sonoma. This is the best I’ve done in Denver, so I’m happy about that, but bummed out we couldn’t take it all the way today.”
For Pedregon, it was the next step of the resurgence for the small one-car team, which has now advanced to the semi-finals twice in the last four races. The American Racing Toyota Camry knocked off Robert Hight in round one and then eliminated Tommy Johnson Jr. in the second round before finally losing to John Force in the semi-finals.
“I wake up in the morning and I’m motivated to fix my business and we have some some gaps in it right now, but, I know what it takes,” said Pedregon, a two-time Funny Car world champion. “It’s a great challenge, but I think we do a great job with as little as we currently have to work with. Give a team like ours a little funding and we could be dangerous. This was another good showing for us to get to the semi-finals and we’re not backing into it, we’re earning it. We ran well here this weekend, but truthfully, I’m excited to get back to sea level at Sonoma with some of the recent gains we’ve made. The Toyota support with the aerodynamics, as well as the engineering feedback in reading the track and conditions and telling us how much wing we need to put in it has really helped. It’s really a good team effort with a pretty modest crew. My father told me as a kid ‘surround yourself with good people’ and I’ve managed to do that.”
Rounding out the Camry Funny Cars, Cruz Pedregon ran low E.T. in round one while defeating Ron Capps, but couldn’t hold off John Force in the second round after leading much of the way. Del Worsham ran the third-quickest pass of the first round only to fall to point leader Matt Hagan on a hole-shot. Chad Head also lost in the opening round.
In Top Fuel, both Shawn Langdon and Richie Crampton advanced to round two. Langdon defeated Spencer Massey in his first run before losing to Brittany Force in round two. Crampton knocked off Doug Kalitta in his opening match-up and then fell to race winner Steve Torrance in his second run.
Antron Brown lost in the opening round to J.R. Todd despite running a 3.991, which would have defeated four first-round winners.
The NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series continues the Western Swing next weekend in California at the Sonoma Nationals at Sonoma Raceway, July 31- August 2.
