NHRA Funny Car driver Alexis DeJoria will be joining Joe Maynard’s JCM Racing team for the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series season.
DeJoria, 47, will join Maynard’s multicar operation, where she will pilot the Bandero Premium Tequila Funny Car. A crew chief and the full 2025 JCM Racing driver lineup will be announced at a later date.
DeJoria competed with Kalitta Motorsports from 2011 through 2017. From 2020 through the 2024 season, she drove for Del Worsham and the DC Motorsports team, where she advanced to the final round seven times, including a victory at the 2021 Bristol race.
“First and foremost, I want to share my appreciation for Del Worsham and all he has done for me and my career,” DeJoria said. “He has been with me since day one. I licensed in his Funny Car way back in 2011. He was my first crew chief at Kalitta Motorsports. 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 team. He expressed wanting to take some time to reevaluate the direction of his career, and I wholeheartedly support that.
“I’m really looking forward to this next chapter in my career, competing as a member of the JCM Racing team,” she added. “It’s been many years since I was part of a multicar operation, and I’m excited for that opportunity. From my very first conversation with Joe about us potentially teaming up, 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. 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.”
DeJoria brings more than two decades of drag racing experience to JCM Racing. She made her professional debut in 2011 at Dallas. In Funny Car, she has competed in 235 events and is a six-time Funny Car national event winner, including a victory at the 60th NHRA U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis. Prior to that she competed in the NHRA’s Super Comp and Top Alcohol classes. She is also credited with being the first woman to record a sub-four-second Funny Car pass during the 2014 NHRA Winternationals in Pomona, California.
“It’s clear to me that Alexis is a racer through and through,” said Maynard, who successfully launched his JCM Racing team at the 2022 NHRA Northwest Nationals and went on to win that event in his first weekend of team ownership. “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 best support NHRA Drag Racing, and Alexis shares that same love of the sport. I also want to share my gratitude to Del for making this transition process so smooth. 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 will make her JCM Racing debut at the NHRA preseason test session scheduled at Gainesville Raceway prior to the season-opening Amalie Motor Oil NHRA Gatornationals which will be held there March 6-9, 2025.
