DeJoria Joins JCM Racing for 2025 campaign
After working with two-time NHRA champion Del Worsham since beginning her NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series Funny Car career, Alexis DeJoria and Worsham have parted ways, with the driver taking her operation to Joe Maynard’s JCM Racing team for this year’s 20-race season. She retains support from Bandero Premium Tequila for her Funny Car as she joins the multi-car group of nitro-powered racecars.
DeJoria has been affiliated with Worsham’s DC Motorsports since 2020, after a two-season period away from the sport of straight-line racing. She’s gone to seven final rounds during this four-season stay with Worsham’s team, earning victory at the 2021 Bristol race. DeJoria entered Funny Car competition in 2011 as a member of Kalitta Motorsports’ multi-car squad that included Worsham among its racers.
“First and foremost,” she said, “I want to share my appreciation for Del Worsham and all he has done for me and my career. He’s been with me since day one: I licensed in his Funny Car back in 2011,” DeJoria reminded. “He was my first crew chief at Kalitta Motorsports and Del and I have really been in the trenches as teammates. He’s my mentor, my closest confidante and, really my brother. We had several candid conversations over these last few months about the future of the [DC Motorsports] team. He expressed wanting to take some time to reevaluate the direction of his career, and I wholeheartedly support that.”
A six-time NHRA Funny Car National event winner, including her victory in the prestigious 60th annual U.S. Nationals at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park, DeJoria stated she is “really looking forward to this next chapter in my career, competing was a member of the JCM Racing team. It’s been many years since I was part of a multi-car operation and I’m excited for that opportunity. From my very first conversation with Joe about us potentially teaming up,” she added, “I knew this was going to be a good fit.
“His enthusiasm for the sport is incredible and the impact he has made on this industry, in just a few years’ time is undeniable,” DeJoria reminded. “I have unfinished business on the track, and I have no doubt our Bandero team will be dialed in and ready to perform when we get to Gainesville for the Gatornationals season opener in two months.”
Before making her professional debut at Texas Motorplex’s 2011 NHRA national event, DeJoria plied her trade in NHRA’s Super Comp and Top Alcohol Funny Car arenas. Counting her two Lucas Oil Sportsman victories, she’s an eight-tine overall race winner and the only driver to own the trifecta of victory in Super Comp, Top Alcohol Funny Car and [nitro] Funny Car. She also became the first woman to clock a sub-four-second Funny Car pass during the 2014 NHRA Winternationals on In-N-Out Burger Pomona Dragstrip.
Maynard, who is a student of the sport and watches all aspects of straight-line racing realized, “It’s clear to me that Alexis is a racer through and through,” he said. Maynard launched his JCM Racing team at the 2022 NHRA Northwest Nationals outside Seattle; JCM went on to win that event on debut. “We’re both here for the love of the sport and that’s important to me. That’s why my family and I first started our team to begin with. We were fans first, then sponsors and then team owners. That’s how we felt we could support NHRA drag racing, and Alexis shares that same love of the sport.
“I also want to share my gratitude Del for making this transition process so smooth,” Maynard stressed. “As a fellow team owner and friend, I have nothing but respect for him. We’re very excited to have Alexis in our stable this year. She’s hungry for race wins and a championship, and we’d love nothing more than to give her the tools and support to go out there and become NHRA’s first female Funny Car world champion.”
DeJoria makes her JCM Racing debut during the NHRA preseason test sessions March 4-5 at Gainesville Raceway, site of the season opener. Her crew chief, manufacturer branding of her race car, together with the full 2025 JCM Racing driver lineup, are scheduled to be revealed in due process.