DeJoria was born into a family with deep business roots — her father, John Paul DeJoria, co-founded the Paul Mitchell hair care brand and the Patrón Spirits Company. She grew up with an interest in motorsport and eventually pursued drag racing as a professional discipline. As of 2022 she was reported to have a net worth of approximately $100 million, making her one of the wealthiest female athletes in the world.
DeJoria began her NHRA career in 2005, entering at the grassroots level in the Super Gas category before progressing to Super Comp dragster. Eight months after her NHRA debut she won the Sportsman Nationals in Fontana, California. She spent the following two years racing on the West Coast in the Top Alcohol Funny Car (TA/FC) class.
In 2009, DeJoria founded her own team, Stealth Motorsports, giving her full control over her racing programme. At the 2011 NHRA Northwest Fall Nationals she claimed her first national event win in TA/FC, becoming only the second woman in history to win at that level. Later that year she left Stealth Motorsports to join Kalitta Motorsports — owned by veteran racer Connie Kalitta — as their fourth team member and second Funny Car driver. That move coincided with her step up to nitro (Fuel) Funny Car at the 2011 Texas Fall Nationals.
She made her first Funny Car final-round appearance in 2012 at Bristol and set career bests that year with a 4.032-second elapsed time and a speed of 319.07 mph (513.49 km/h) at Reading. During the 2013 season she reached four semi-final finishes. Her car was sponsored by the Patrón Spirits Company throughout much of her tenure with Kalitta, giving the team strong commercial backing and high visibility within the sport.
The 2014 season was the defining chapter of DeJoria's career. At the NHRA Winternationals in Pomona she became the first woman ever to record a sub-four-second pass in Funny Car competition, posting a 3.997-second elapsed time. At her very next event in Phoenix she converted that momentum into her first Funny Car national event victory. She followed up with a second win in Las Vegas in March 2014.
In May 2014 she broke the Funny Car track record at Atlanta Dragway with a 4.012-second pass and earned the number one qualifier position. That summer she also broke and then reset the Brainerd International Raceway Funny Car elapsed time record, running 4.010 seconds and subsequently 3.998 seconds — the first sub-four-second Funny Car pass in Brainerd's history. In September 2014 she won the U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis, one of the most prestigious events on the NHRA calendar.
In June 2015, DeJoria reached the final round of the NHRA Summernationals at Englishtown, further demonstrating her consistency at the top level of Funny Car competition.
After a two-year hiatus, DeJoria announced her return to competition in late 2019. She targeted the full 2020 schedule with the stated goal of becoming the first woman to win a Funny Car championship. For the 2020 campaign her team — led by crew chiefs Del Worsham and Nicky Boninfante — secured sponsorship from ROKiT Phones and ABK Beer, branding that appeared on her car, driver and crew uniforms, merchandise, and transport fleet.
DeJoria was previously married to television personality and motorcycle customizer Jesse James; the couple announced their divorce in March 2020, citing James' infidelity. DeJoria has a daughter, Bella, from an earlier relationship.
She also appeared in the 2013 film Snake and Mongoose, playing the character Paula — a dramatisation of the famous NHRA rivalry between Tom McEwen and Don Prudhomme.
Alexis DeJoria's career carved out lasting significance in NHRA history. Her sub-four-second Funny Car run at the 2014 Winternationals represented a genuine barrier broken, equivalent in symbolic weight to other landmark first-woman achievements in drag racing. Building and operating her own team before joining a factory-supported outfit demonstrated both competitive and entrepreneurial resolve. Her ambition to be the first female Funny Car champion, articulated on returning from her hiatus, underscored that her highest goals remained unfinished business within the sport.
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