The Untapped Engine of Drag Racing
Typical sports partnership: brand reaches out to athlete’s management → manager handles the details, loops in athlete where needed → contracts are handled by management → athlete focuses on their sport, management worries about the rest.
Drag racing is different.
Most drivers are independent contractors who have to secure their own funding to compete. A full season of National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) Top Fuel racing requires drivers to find $3.5 - $4 million to get on the track.
Brands have access to 20 races primed for partnership with various levels of investment and placement opportunities, yet 3x European champion Ida Zetterström will only be racing twelve of this season’s 20 events due to lack of sponsorships.
While brands are facing the challenge of where to invest in women’s sports, calculating ROI, and keeping up with the rapidly changing market they’re overlooking drag racing. The NHRA U.S. Nationals generated 11 million impressions on social media and hit a record on FOX with 1.036 million viewers – this is on par with the WNBA’s 2025 ratings which average 794,000 viewers per game across all national networks.
It’s also the only pro sport where men and women compete head-to-head.
With drivers like Ida not just behind the wheel but at the table putting together their own partnerships, there is an unprecedented opportunity for growth (for brands and drivers alike).
A Two-Way Road
Unlike other professional sports, drivers spend a large portion of their time on business development rather than athletic performance.
Ida says she spends "probably at least 70%, if not more" of her time building sponsor decks, proposals, and managing partnerships on top of racing. Other pro athletes have contracts with leagues for guaranteed salaries; drag racers like Ida don't have fully-funded seasons—if they can't secure brand dollars, they can't afford to compete. Sponsorship isn't supplemental funding; it's essential to get on the track.
This fundamental operating difference creates both challenges and opportunities for brand partnerships.
Direct partnerships can eliminate communication barriers and create more authentic brand integration than traditional agency-managed relationships. This equates to:
Real-time campaign adjustments
Genuine product integration
Stronger brand alignment
When drivers have direct stakes in sponsor success, they become genuine brand advocates instead of just logo carriers. But how do we get there?
The Four Gears to Partnership Success
Most brands perceive motorsports sponsorships as billboard rentals—pay the fee, plaster the logo across the car/helmet/trailer, pick your poison on out-of-home (OOH) metrics of success. Ida treats brand partners as strategic allies in drag racing rather than advertising space.
Here’s how she shifts into each gear:
1: Build Direct Relationships with Brand Decision-Makers
Ida begins partnerships by working directly with brand decision-makers to understand their specific representation needs and audience goals.
"It's very easy for them to tell me how they want me to represent their brand," Ida notes. "It's easier for me, personally, to go and talk to a sponsor and say, hey, how do you want me to represent Dodge? How do you think this is a good fit?"
The process involves Ida explaining her content strategy, audience demographics, and integration capabilities while the brand articulates their goals, brand voice expectations, and success metrics for different product lines.
"They love the fact that they can work with me one on one. Even if we have a big sponsor and we have a manager, I don't want to lose that connection completely because I think it makes us stronger."
Both parties then align on authentic deliverables that maintain driver credibility while still serving brand objectives.
2: Create Content for Different Audiences
Ida's partnership tactic demonstrates how brands can reach both motorsports enthusiasts and everyday consumers through strategic content creation. She creates BTS motorsports-focused content for her personal channels while developing consumer-focused content for the brand.
"So with sponsors, the deliverables are kind of split 50-50 between the products that are catered to the everyday user that is not a motorsport fan. Then we can make some promos that run mostly in their channels," explains Ida.
With 227,000 Instagram followers, 56,000 on Facebook, and 4,100 on YouTube, Ida's social media reach rivals top drivers in the sport:
Within reach of: Brittany Force (269K IG followers, #5 in Top Fuel, current record-holder and retiring from NHRA next season)
Ahead of: Current league leader Antron Brown (150K IG followers, #1 in Top Fuel)
Significantly ahead of: Other female drivers like Jasmine Salinas (138K IG followers, #13 in Top Fuel) and Krista Baldwin (18.1K IG followers, #18 in Top Fuel)
She creates motorsports-centered content for partner VP Racing showing race fuel and performance additive usage during competition, while also developing consumer-focused content for dealer networks featuring lawn care and everyday vehicle applications. It allows them to market both high-performance racing products and consumer applications through a single authentic partnership.
3: Use Open-Pit Access for Brand Moments
Unlike traditional sports where fan interaction is limited to brief meet-and-greets, drag racing offers unprecedented access as the only professional motorsport with a completely open pit for the fans.
The open-pit format means customers can watch Ida actually use brand products during race preparation, creating authentic product demonstrations that few other sports can replicate.
"We take them [sponsors] to our hospitality, and that's where we can cater to them, and they can get that closer connection to their dealers, or their new customers," Ida explains about the unique access motorsports provides.
These experiential marketing opportunities expand brand reach beyond drag racing through:
Trade show appearances where Ida represents the brand directly to dealer networks and end customers
Racing events across different styles that connect brands with other communities like the Baja 400
Live product demonstrations during race weekends where customers see real-world product performance under extreme conditions
Multi-channel content creation that captures both the high-performance racing application and consumer use cases in authentic settings
What would usually just be typical sponsorship visibility ends up transforming into active customer education and relationship building that drives both immediate sales and long-term brand loyalty.
4: Turn Race Weekends Into Smart Business Opportunities
While product demonstrations create awareness, Ida recognizes that drag racing's true leg up lies in its ability to transform race weekends into high-impact business development events. The combination of adrenaline, exclusive access, and shared excitement creates an environment where customers and prospects naturally want to deepen their business relationships.
With influencer trips and customer appreciation rising in priority for brands, motorsports’ built-in hospitality is a major benefit that puts customers directly into the action. Ida centers on creating premium experiences that feel exclusive without being stuffy, allowing for organic relationship building in an environment where everyone is genuinely excited to be there.
Ida's hospitality functions as both customer retention and lead generation.
High-value customers receive VIP race weekend experiences that create lasting personal connections to the brand
Prospect meetings happen in an environment where the excitement of motorsports makes business conversations feel natural rather than forced
Sponsors in drag racing get a level of access and closeness to the track that even the biggest sponsors in NASCAR, IndyCar and Formula 1 don’t have.
Results That Drive Revenue
Ida's direct partnership delivers results across multiple dimensions, backed by substantial audience engagement and impressive business outcomes:s.
Her sponsors successfully reach both motorsports enthusiasts and everyday consumers through authentic product integration, leveraging Ida's social media reach of:
5-8 million monthly impressions across 286,000+ followers
NHRA's millions of weekend viewers on Fox Sports
30-60,000 fans per race weekend with unprecedented open-pit access
200+ person hospitality capacity at race events
For brands looking for under utilized markets, drag racing and their drivers are key to the next phase of sports investment.
By working directly with drivers like Ida during the sport's healthy growth phase—with year-over-year increases in TV viewership and expanding geographic reach—brands open the door to multiple customer segments, authentic driver collaborations, and experiential marketing opportunities that create lasting value.
