Team Patrόn Looking for Consistency in Phoenix

DELRAY BEACH, Fla. (February 19, 2013)— The Kalitta Motorsports Tequila Patrόn Toyota Camry Funny Car team travels to Phoenix, Ariz. this week in anticipation of the 29th annual NHRA Arizona Nationals, the second event of the 2013 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series.

With just four days in between races, the Patrόn team packed up shop in Pomona, Calif. yesterday after qualifying in the No. 10 spot at the season-opening NHRA Winternationals this past weekend. Despite encountering a few mechanical issues throughout the first event, Team Green feels pleased with the car’s performance overall and hopes to see their hard work translate into success on the race track this weekend in Phoenix.

“I feel good going into Phoenix even though we had issues at Pomona,” said the team’s driver, Alexis DeJoria, now in her second season as a nitro Funny Car pilot, and eighth season as an NHRA competitor. “At least we found the problems and fixed them. Overall, we’ve been making it down the track. This is a process and it takes time to build a new tune-up. I feel confident in my team’s abilities to perform very well this season.”

With the black and green Toyota Camry making nearly 20 successful passes down the track during winter testing last month, veteran crew chief Tommy DeLago feels confident in the current tuning strategy. “We think we see that there is a way to make this car have a bigger window of opportunity as far as being even more consistent than how it was in testing. Unfortunately, it showed its head a little bit this past weekend in Pomona when it got a little warmer out than what we had seen in testing, which made it a little finicky, but I feel good about the plan we have in place.”

When asked about what he anticipates conditions to be like this weekend, DeLago answered, “You never know what conditions you’re going to find in Phoenix. Some years it’s really good and you can lean on it and run some good ET’s, but it’s one of those places that you don’t really know what to expect until you actually get there. The good news is, we know what the issues were in Pomona and we are able to fix them, so we should have no problem getting down the track this weekend. From there, we will focus on making the car go faster and being more competitive.”

Alexis DeJoria and the Kalitta Motorsports Tequila Patrόn Toyota Camry Funny Car team compete this weekend at the 29th annual NHRA Arizona Nationals in Phoenix, Ariz. Prior to the weekend, DeJoria will be making an appearance at Loco Patrόn Mexican Grill in Tempe, Arizona on Thursday, February 21st, 5PM-6:30PM. The event is free and open to the public. For more information, please visit www.alexisdejoriaracing.com

Courtesy - Alexis DeJoria Racing (Kalitta Motorsports)