Alexis De Joria Sonoma preview

De Joria hoping to build on strong Seattle performance

SONOMA, Calif. - Rookie NHRA Top Alcohol Funny Car driver Alexis De Joria and the Tequila Patrón/Jack O'Bannon Racing team are hoping to build on their best outing to date last weekend in Seattle during this weekend's Fram-Autolite Nationals at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, Calif. After inclement weather shortened qualifying to just one session in Seattle, De Joria hopes a clean forecast will give the team more time to build on their career-best 5.73 last weekend.

De Joria, 29, of Venice, Calif., is excited about the recent turn for the better her season has taken. The daughter of Patrón Spirits Company and Paul Mitchell Hair Care Products founder John Paul De Joria has qualified for her last three outings. She credits making more clean laps to her accelerated development.

"We're really thrilled about getting to race in Sonoma," said De Joria. "It's a good track and my Crew Chief Randy Anderson tells me that the air is good there, too. I'm still excited about running that 5.73 in Seattle. We're going to try to repeat and build on that in Sonoma. If we can do better than that, it will just be amazing to me. Hopefully we can get a clean first pass."

"It will also be nice if we can get all of the qualifying sessions," De Joria continued. "Last weekend with all the rain, all we had is one shot. Randy and the guys really have this Tequila Patrón hot rod running great right now. Every run lately seems to be better than the last. This is my rookie year and I still have a lot to learn, so the more passes I can make, the better. Not only do I need to focus on getting the car down the track, but work on my starting line game. I'm really working on my focus so I don't have another let down like I did in Seattle. It's all part of learning and all I can do is just do my best every time."

Qualifying begins on Friday for the alcohol cars with two sessions and concludes Saturday morning. Eliminations begin with round one on Saturday afternoon, and final eliminations conclude the event on Sunday.

About The Patrón Spirits Company:
Headquartered in Las Vegas, Nevada, the company's eight distinctive products now share the Patrón label; Gran Patrón Platinum, Patrón Añejo, Patrón Reposado, Patrón Silver, Patrón XO Café, Patrón Citrónge, Pyrat Cask 23, Pyrat XO Reserve. Each brand is the finest in their category. The newest, Gran Patrón Platinum, is an extraordinary triple distilled pure tequila. sPatrón Tequila is today, the world’s number one ultra premium tequila. In 2004 & 2005, Patrón Tequila was recognized with the American Academy of Hospitality Sciences Five Star Diamond Award. Patrón is the first spirits brand ever to receive this prestigious honor. Patrón Tequila continues to set new sales records every year.

To find out more about the Jack O'Bannon Racing team, log on to their website at www.JackOBannonRacing.com

To find out more about the team's quality partners, visit these websites:

www.PatronSpirits.com - Find out more about the world's number one tequila - Tequila Patrón.

www.HoosierRacingTire.com - "Tires Designed for Champions"

www.LE-Inc.com - Lubrication Engineers - "Leaders in Lubrication"

Contact: Will Hanna/ Pro Race Communications
Email: Will.Hanna@InsideTopAlcohol.com