Alexis DeJoria and the Patrón XO Café Incendio Toyota Camry Funny Car team qualified 10th for the NHRA Countdown to the Championship. This past weekend they raced in Charlotte, North Carolina, in the first of a six-race playoff series.
Last year at this race we were the No. 1 qualifiers, and even though it's nice to come back here knowing that we accomplished that last year, it really doesn't mean anything because it's a completely different day, a different year and a different race altogether. In this industry, you can be the No. 1 qualifier one race and then not even qualify the next.
As it would turn out, qualifying was pretty tricky for us this time around. We had some mishaps in the first three rounds and didn't make it down the track, so it all came down to the last qualifying run for us to get into the 16-car field and have a chance at racing on Sunday. Thankfully, we did it -- but just barely. We ended up qualifying in the No. 13 spot for race day.
Although we weren't in the top half of the qualifying field, I didn't get too discouraged because in the past we've had races where we've not qualified well and then we went on to win the whole event. Even though it does matter where you qualified, at the same time, it really doesn't. As long as you qualified, then you still have a shot -- you can win from anywhere, but you've got to be in it to have that shot.
In the first round we were up against Tim Wilkerson. We ran a 4.107, which was our best run of the weekend at that point and enough to defeat him. Man, can one run really change everything. We came back to the pit after the first round and everybody was super stoked and I had a second wind. I felt like maybe we really did have a shot at this -- maybe we could have a good day and move up in points and be a serious contender in the Countdown. If you can run a number like that 4.107 in the heat of the day, you're doing pretty good and you know you have a good car. As it would turn out, that run held up to be the second best of that round.
My mind-set after that first round was focused on just wanting to have good reaction times and make consistent runs. We went up there for the second round and I was racing against the car that I got licensed in years back. It's my teammate Del Worsham's dad's car, so there were some sentimental feelings. That team is made up of a great group of guys. They're not a full-time team on the NHRA tour so obviously they weren't in Countdown contention, but when they do come out and race, they get down the racetrack and make good runs.
You can't count anybody out, and I'm sure they wanted to play spoiler. Every round counts right now so we knew we'd have to work just as hard to get past them as any Countdown-qualified car. I didn't have the greatest reaction time, but the car made another consistent run and we got the round win.
After that, we were off to the semifinals, and what a great feeling that was. We came into the race ranked 10th and to know that we were going to the semis in the first race of the Countdown just felt so good.
For the semis, we were up against Tommy Johnson Jr. I knew I had to step it up and cut a good light against him because he's pretty consistent on the tree. In the round before, his car ran a little bit better than ours so I knew I had to do my part and get him on the starting line.
Before the semifinal round, I went in to my lounge and practiced my reaction times a little bit. Then I dimmed the lights, put on my iPod and listened to music and just tried to calm myself and get myself in that very balanced state of mind. As a driver, it's important to achieve that perfect balance with your mind-set. You want to have that "ready to battle'' mentality but at the same time, you don't want to overdo it and get too jacked up because that can mess with you, too.
When it was time to go up for the semis, I was in a good place and felt really confident, solid and pumped. All I could think was "we are in the semifinals coming from the No. 10 spot at the start of the weekend, and now here we are getting round wins and moving up in the points rankings.'' I pulled up to the starting line for the round, and Tommy Johnson double staged (turned on both staging bulbs), and something like that can really throw you off your game. I knew he didn't do that to me on purpose, but it's moments like that being a mature driver and someone that's been out here for a while and has dealt with a bunch of different scenarios -- all that seriously came into play at that moment.
I just took a big deep breath, staged and cut a mean light! Unfortunately, the car smoked the tires (lost traction) right at the hit of throttle, and Tommy was able to get the round win. That was the end of our day and we wouldn't advance to the finals, but my Funny Car teammate Del did. He and the DHL team made it to the finals and went on to win the race! It was great to see our teammates win the first race of the Countdown, and not only that, they moved into the Funny Car points lead.
When it was all said and done, we moved up from 10th to seventh, which is pretty awesome. I'm definitely excited for our next race in St. Louis in a few short days.
