More than 100 free mammograms were performed this past weekend at the 13th annual NHRA Toyota Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, thanks to a partnership between Alexis DeJoria Racing and the Nevada Health Centers.

The Nevada Health Centers parked their ‘mammovan,’ a mobile mammography unit in a semi-truck, behind the Alexis DeJoria Racing pit throughout the duration of the race weekend. From open-to-close, throughout all three race days, a continuous stream of women visited the mammovan to take advantage of the free mammography screenings.

More than 100 free mammograms were performed this past weekend at the 13th annual NHRA Toyota Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, thanks to a partnership between Alexis DeJoria Racing and the Nevada Health Centers.

The Nevada Health Centers parked their ‘mammovan,’ a mobile mammography unit in a semi-truck, behind the Alexis DeJoria Racing pit throughout the duration of the race weekend. From open-to-close, throughout all three race days, a continuous stream of women visited the mammovan to take advantage of the free mammography screenings.

Donations from Alexis DeJoria, driver of the Kalitta Motorsports Tequila Patrón Toyota Camry Funny Car, Kalitta Motorsports, Technicoat, and Rick Fischer from Fischer Honda enabled the mammovan technicians to be able to provide free screenings to any female over 40 attending the race- never having to turn a woman away because she did not have health insurance.  According to the Nevada Health Centers, it is estimated that 80% of the women who visited the mammovan during the weekend did not have health insurance.

As one of the few female drivers in the male-dominated motorsports industry, Alexis DeJoria wanted to do more than just add pink decals to her Tequila Patrón Toyota Camry during October, Breast Cancer Awareness month. She wanted to do something that would directly benefit the female fans in the racing community, which is why she teamed up with the Nevada Health Centers to be able to provide a proactive service which could be a potential life saver to the women of the racing community.

“We were very happy with how everything turned out. Going into the weekend, we weren’t quite sure how women would respond to our ‘free mammograms in the pits’ event, but women showed up at the mammovan in droves. We far exceeded our expectations, which is truly amazing.  The outpouring of support from other teams, racers, and the fans was incredibly moving. I think that people are sometimes quick to forget that drag racing has a huge female fan base. As one of the female drivers out here, I was so happy to be able to give back in this way,” said DeJoria, who also underwent mammography screening during the weekend.

Monica Taylor, Chief Operating Officer of the Nevada Health Centers was on-site throughout the weekend and also could not be more pleased with the turnout. “We were thrilled to be able to partner with Alexis DeJoria Racing and bring our mammovan to such a unique venue. It provided a great opportunity for us to have more exposure to the local community and educate women about the importance of breast cancer screening. We were able to see more than 100 women over the course of the race weekend. They all had various stories to share with us and it was just an incredible weekend overall.”

In addition to providing free mammograms, Adam Lucero of GoTie donated pink ties which fans were able to purchase in an exchange for a 20 dollar donation. More than 2500 dollars was raised for the Nevada Health Centers through the Go Tie donation. Additionally, one of DeJorias’ hot pink parachutes which she ran on her car during both the October Reading and Las Vegas races was ripped during the last run of the race weekend. DeJoria has autographed the parachute, which will be auctioned off with proceeds going to NVHC. For more information, please visit www.alexisdejoriaracing.com