{"id":32326,"date":"2016-11-08T10:07:27","date_gmt":"2016-11-08T18:07:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/?p=32326"},"modified":"2018-08-16T12:35:43","modified_gmt":"2018-08-16T19:35:43","slug":"dejoria-out-for-nhra-finals-in-pomona","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/dejoria-out-for-nhra-finals-in-pomona\/","title":{"rendered":"DeJoria Out for NHRA Finals in Pomona"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"DeJoria
Photo courtesy of Gary Nastase Photography.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

The 2016 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series has been a roller-coaster ride for Alexis DeJoria and her Tequila Patr\u00f3n Toyota Camry Funny Car team, but they are determined to finish the season strong.<\/p>\n

At the most recent event, the NHRA Toyota Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Team Patr\u00f3n elected to not compete in Sunday\u2019s<\/span> elimination rounds. The difficult decision followed an incident that occurred on Saturday\u2019s third round of qualifying. Past the finish line, DeJoria experienced a series of mechanical malfunctions that caused her Tequila Patr\u00f3n Toyota Camry to careen uncontrollably across the race track and make contact with the left retaining wall. \u00a0DeJoria\u2019s head whipped hard into the left roll cage head pad as a result of the collision. Fueled by adrenaline, DeJoria exited the vehicle unassisted and initially felt fine. Not until later that evening did she begin to feel the effects of the high-powered impact, waking up the next morning with concussion-like symptoms.<\/p>\n

Always a fighter, DeJoria had her heart set on racing, but after consulting with her crew chiefs, the team made the difficult decision to withdraw from the race and focus on closing out the season strong at the Auto Club NHRA Finals in Pomona, Calif.<\/p>\n

Upon returning to her home in Austin, Texas, DeJoria was evaluated by medical professionals at Texas Sport and Family Medicine and was diagnosed with a concussion. DeJoria\u2019s treating physicians ruled her out of the final event of the 2016 season.<\/p>\n

\u201cI underwent a series of cognitive tests and the doctors diagnosed me with a full-blown concussion that required me to step away from the seat for the time being,\u201d said DeJoria, who has already had to miss two other races earlier in the season due to a fractured pelvis, also caused by a side-impact crash.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt takes two weeks for these symptoms to subside and even then, because of the trauma from the concussion, it would be unsafe for me to race this weekend. To go out and get behind the wheel of a 10,000-horsepower race car, with its high g-forces and the possibility of tire shake, would just be too traumatic for my head in its sensitive state. I\u2019ve never been a quitter and never will be, but I must accept my fate and sit this last race out.\u201d<\/p>\n

The news was a devastating blow to DeJoria, who desperately wanted to close out the year on a positive note with her team. Despite not being able to compete, DeJoria still wants to see her Patr\u00f3n Toyota Camry in the Winners Circle before the year\u2019s end. DeJoria consulted with Kalitta Motorsports’ Connie Kalitta and her father, John Paul DeJoria. The trio decided to bring in a substitute driver for the final event of 2016.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot has happened this year. We started off strong with a win and a No. 1 qualifier right after. It\u2019s been a roller-coaster ride of ups and downs, with the downs being pretty severe – a concussion in Denver, a pelvic fracture in Sonoma and then another concussion in Vegas. It\u2019s been a very trying year for our team. I had a discussion with my father and Connie Kalitta and we all agreed that we thought it would be really wonderful for my team to end on a positive note, and finish the year out. We decided to have someone fill the seat and take our beautiful Patr\u00f3n Camry down the track at the World Finals,\u201d DeJoria said.<\/p>\n

Jeff Arend was chosen as the ideal replacement. Arend drove the Kalitta Motorsports DHL Funny Car during DeJoria\u2019s rookie season and worked alongside current DHL Funny Car pilot Del Worsham to assist DeJoria in getting her Funny Car license in 2011.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m extremely honored and excited to drive the Patr\u00f3n Toyota Camry in Pomona,\u201d said Arend, who resides in nearby La Verne. \u201cI look forward to representing Alexis and Patr\u00f3n, and hopefully put this car in the Winners Circle in front of my family and friends. Thank you to Alexis, John Paul [DeJoria] and Kalitta Motorsports for this opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Doctors have ordered DeJoria to abstain from flying until she has experienced a full recovery. While she cannot physically be at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona, she will be there in spirit and is counting down the days until she can get back behind the wheel of her Tequila Patr\u00f3n Toyota Camry and begin her campaign for the 2017 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series Funny Car Championship.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to be hard for me not to be there but I\u2019m thinking long term. I need to get myself healthy and focus on coming back strong next year,\u201d said DeJoria, a four-time Funny Car winner.<\/p>\n

Jeff Arend and the Kalitta Motorsports Tequila Patr\u00f3n Toyota Camry Funny Car team will begin qualifying for the 52nd<\/sup> annual Auto Club NHRA Finals on Friday, Nov. 11 at 12:45 PM<\/span>. Alexis DeJoria is scheduled to return to NHRA competition at the 2017 Circle K NHRA Winternationals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Despite not being able to compete, DeJoria still wants to see her Patr\u00f3n Toyota Camry in the Winners Circle before the year\u2019s end.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":32327,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3465,1082,3470,3399],"tags":[3945,76,38,2538,4730,41,3735,1632],"class_list":["post-32326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-drag-racing","category-press-release","category-news","category-nhra","tag-2016-nhra-mello-yello-series","tag-alexis-dejoria","tag-funny-car","tag-injuries","tag-kalitta-motorsports","tag-news","tag-press-releases","tag-racing"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/1614-01562.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p42YSK-8po","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32326","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32326"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32326\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32328,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32326\/revisions\/32328"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}