Instead of defending his 2011 NHRA top fuel championship, Del Worsham chose to retire from driving. A lifetime supply of Paul Mitchell hair products and Patrón tequila was rumored to be involved.

Worsham hung up his fire suit to work with Alexis DeJoria, daughter of billionaire businessman John Paul DeJoria. Alexis is a former Los Angeles executive and heir to the Paul Mitchell and Patrón companies who is competing in her first full season, driving the Patrón funny car out of the Kalitta Motorsports stables, with Worsham serving as crew chief.

Forbes magazine estimates the elder DeJoria’s net worth at $4.2 billion.

It wasn’t as much the mountain of money that changed the course of Worsham’s racing career as the passion behind it. Alexis DeJoria, 34, is considered a genuine gearhead with an unmistakable need for speed.

“She’s the reason I went ahead and (retired),” Worsham said Monday. “I had a couple years left on my contract with Al-Anabi Racing. I knew at some point I was going to head in this direction, and when the job offer came along, because of how she is — how dedicated and passionate she is — I thought it was the right time to make the change.”

DeJoria will make her Bandimere Speedway debut at the July 20-22 Mopar Mile-High Nationals, the next Full Throttle Drag Racing Series event. DeJoria is 12th in the division standings, having qualified for 10-of-12 races. She was 18th among 20 funny car drivers in qualifying last weekend at Norwalk, Ohio, failing to make the 16-car field for the first time since the Feb. 17-19 event in Phoenix.

“Just such a brutal weekend,” DeJoria said in a phone interview. “We just couldn’t get the thing down the track. We got lost.”

Worsham expects a substantial bounce-back effort at Bandimere.

“She might be a rookie in funny car, but she’s not a rookie to drag racing,” Worsham said of DeJoria, who made it to the June 17 finals in Bristol, Conn., and to the July 1 semifinals in Chicago. “When things aren’t going well, she doesn’t get down. She wants to always do better, and when she does make mistakes, she doesn’t work at hiding them or disguising them. She is really motivated.”

DeJoria began her NHRA career about 10 years after being emotionally drawn to the sport with her first experience at a national event, at Pomona, Calif., when she was 16. In 2005, after the birth of her daughter and a 10-year stint as a Paul Mitchell executive in L.A., she competed in super gas and super comp, and ultimately spent five years driving a top-alcohol dragster.

She received her nitro-division license in 2010 and hooked up with Kalitta Motorsports late last season to compete in four races.

“Working for Paul Mitchell Hair Care Products in the city was great, but it wasn’t my passion. Racing was my passion, and it was something I needed to go discover,” DeJoria said. “Racing has been something I gravitated toward since I was a kid. My dad first introduced me to fast cars, and it just stuck. I had a hot rod in high school, and during those last couple years of working in L.A., I knew this was something I had to do.”

She is pleased with her 2012 rookie campaign.

“Getting to the finals in Bristol was huge, running a 4.04 (seconds elapsed time) in Englishtown (N.J.) was huge and then a 4.07 in Chicago and going to the semifinals there was huge,” DeJoria said. “And then in the last race, we didn’t qualify. It’s been such a roller-coaster ride.”

She is thankful to have Worsham in her corner.

“He’s been my mentor from the beginning, and he’s the best person I could have hoped for,” she said. “He’s driven all his life, and he knows these cars inside and out. We have a really good friendship and communication level. He’s awesome.”

DeJoria’s season includes a 6-10 elimination-round record. She has beat legendary driver John Force twice. She qualified a career-best sixth at Englishtown with a 313.66 mph pass before losing to Force in the first round.

“It’s still a new team, and a lot of things are developing,” Worsham said. “We’ve been to a final, which is great for a first-year team, and we’ve won some rounds. Alexis continues to improve, but with me being in this new position, it’s going to take a while.”

Mike Chambers: 303-954-1357, mchambers@denverpost.com or twitter.com/mchambersdp

Pretty good for starters

NHRA funny car driver Alexis DeJoria has put together a respectable rookie season.

By the numbers:

1: Final-round appearance (lost to Ron Capps in Bristol, Conn.)

2: Semifinal appearances (12 races)

6-10: Elimination-round record

4.04 seconds: Career-best elapsed time

313.66 mph: Career-best speed