Courtesy of WFAA.com

Alexis DeJoria will spend the weekend in Ennis, at the Texas Motorplex. It’s loud, it’s dirty, and there is nowhere else she’d rather be.

“It’s gone from, I really like to do this, I wonder if I can do this part time, to, this is a full-time job and running a team,” said DeJoria.

DeJoria has been racing for four years and is the only woman to own and operate a racing team in the National Hot Rod Association. Her father founded Paul Mitchell hair care systems — a billion dollar a year business — so she had other options.

“But at the end of the day I was like, I really need to go find what’s my passion,” said DeJoria, “what I really want to succeed in.”

Her first couple years were not very successful. But then she got her own team two years ago, and her career took off. She made the finals at this track a year ago, and is only the second woman to win three races in a row.

“They saw this change in her,” said her crew chief Nick Bastiao. “Now, she’s not just this rich girl — she’s a racer. And if you’re not careful, she’s going to beat you.”

Any questions as to how serious DeJoria is about the sport were answered in June 2009, when she stayed with it, even after a horrific crash in new jersey.

“You can see it on the video,” said DeJoria. “As soon as they (her parachutes) blossomed, boom, they’re gone. They just fly away.”

She lost her parachutes and her brakes didn’t work.

“And I just aimed for the center of the nets and took my hands off the wheel and kind of clenched them into my chest as soon as my front wheels went into the sand,” said DeJoria. “And I have no control over where the car was going or what direction, just braced for impact, and that’s it.”

Besides a couple of bruised knees, she emerged from the crash uninjured. This weekend she hopes to make a name for herself as a winner.

[News Source]