Find Your Athletes. Here's The Strategy Behind Winning Drag Racing Partnerships.
You're at a marketing conference, and everyone's talking about the same saturated channels.
Social media influencers with manufactured personas, celebrity endorsements that cost seven figures, and traditional sports partnerships where you're competing with dozens of other logos for attention.
Meanwhile, there's a sponsorship category generating authentic engagement, delivering loyal demographics, and creating memorable brand stories—and most marketers have never even considered it:
Drag racing.
Meet Ida Zetterström, the 31-year-old Swedish electric engineer turned Top Fuel champion who's quietly proving that drag racing partnerships offer something most traditional sponsorships can't: genuine authenticity backed by professional expertise.
With 23 years of racing experience, three championships, and a previous day job as an electrician, she represents an untapped opportunity that smart brands are starting to notice.
The Blind Spot
Here's what happens when most brands think about drag racing: They picture NASCAR-style logo placement targeting (male) car enthusiasts who know their way around an engine bay.
That assumption, although understandable, misses a massive opportunity.
Drag racing athletes like Ida have built incredibly loyal followings that extend far beyond car and racing culture. Her audience—primarily ages 25-60 with solid disposable income—trusts her recommendations across product categories that have nothing to do with racing:
"I've been really picky on my sponsors. When you have loyal fans and fans that believe in you, they also believe in what you choose to promote."
The proof shows up in unexpected places. Ida's organic preference for Poppi prebiotic sodas—no sponsorship deal involved—led male fans to approach her at races saying they'd started buying variety packs for their wives.
No paid posts. No campaign strategy. Just pure authentic influence driving retail purchases.
How Conventional Wisdom Drags
Most brands entering motorsports follow a predictable playbook: negotiate logo placement, focus on automotive-adjacent products, and measure success through TV exposure during race broadcasts.
This treats athletes like moving billboards rather than multifaceted professionals with diverse expertise and genuine lifestyle needs. The partnerships feel transactional because, well, they are.
Brands get access to intimate fan interactions, behind-the-scenes content opportunities, and athletes with genuine professional expertise—then they settle for the same logo-slapping strategy that worked in 1995.
They're paying premium prices for unique access but using discount activation strategies. This often ends up in partnerships and sponsorships that check boxes, but miss the deeper connection opportunities that create lasting brand value.
Navigating Your Partner Toolbox
Forward-thinking brands are discovering drag racing's real potential through what we call a “The Athlete Evaluation Matrix”. It's a simple strategic system, based on Ida's playbook for building real partnerships that go way beyond classic logo placements. But the real benefit of this system is that it works for any athlete partnership, though it's particularly powerful in drag racing where authenticity and access create unmatched opportunities.
The matrix helps forward-thinking brands and marketers how to connect with fans at every step of their partnership journey across brand awareness, consideration, and fan loyalty, and activation.
Serving as a well-organized toolbox for your athlete partnership, the matrix helps you strategically evaluate and activate the right partner for your channels and goals.
The Athlete Evaluation Matrix: Ida Zetterström
Here’s what each row represents in the matrix:
The Authenticity Row captures what makes an athlete genuinely credible.
Women's motorsports athletes bring rich authentic stories that resonate across diverse audiences. Ida's position as half of the first all-female Top Fuel team in the NHRA is a historic breakthrough creating compelling brand narratives around innovation, perseverance, and breaking barriers. Brands partnering during these milestone moments gain association with genuine achievements rather than paying for exposure after success is already established.
For Ida, this authenticity translates into measurable business impact: her casual Poppi consumption drives organic sales without formal partnerships, while her electrical background provides legitimate technical authority that STEM brands struggle to find elsewhere.
Mapping behaviors that already influence purchasing decisions—like fans buying products based on organic usage—give brands a green light seeking genuine representation.
The Experience Row measures the intimacy level between athletes and their audiences.
Drag racing's behind-the-scenes access lets fans watch Ida mix fuel while chatting with her. Interactive pit tours and VIP hospitality create experiences that corporate suites can't match. For any athlete, this row evaluates how close fans can actually get and what unique access your brand can offer customers.
The Audience Row tracks how athletes reach people across different channels.
Ida generates 5-8 million monthly social impressions, appears on FOX Sports broadcasts, and creates intimate at-track engagement. Even when she’s not in the driver’s seat, Ida remains visible to viewers through her commentary at NHRA races she’s not competing in. This row maps an athlete’s broadcast reach, digital presence, and event opportunities.
The Activation Row transforms all that potential into measurable business results.
Ida's trailer becomes a cross-country billboard, regional races target specific markets, and trackside demonstrations showcase products in action. This row identifies concrete ways to turn partnership potential into sales, leads, and brand visibility.
Here's why this matrix works better in drag racing (and other sports), than traditional partnership models: it reveals opportunities that cookie-cutter playbooks miss entirely. It turns athlete partnerships from guesswork into strategy. And in drag racing, every cell in that matrix typically delivers higher engagement rates than you'll find elsewhere.
More Than Speed
Ida's path from electrician to championship driver shows why non-endemic sponsorships work so naturally in drag racing. She didn't abandon her technical background when she started racing—she enhanced it.
"I want to understand the numbers, see the graphs, get an understanding of what the car wants," Ida says.
Her lifestyle requirements as a professional athlete generate authentic integration opportunities across multiple categories. When someone who admits "I am a terrible cook" partners with a meal prep service, it feels genuine rather than forced.
Top Fuel racing's physical demands—experiencing "six and a half Gs" at 330+ mph—require serious athletic conditioning. Ida's gym routine and focus on proper nutrition create natural partnerships with athletic apparel and performance brands seeking athletes who actually use their products under extreme conditions.
Race weekends create their own set of needs. Taking her helmet on and off throughout competition days means dry shampoo becomes essential. Prone to sunburn (she candidly shared she "burns every damn time" she's outside) makes sunscreen a natural fit for someone constantly competing at outdoor venues.
A 20-race season spanning March through November demands constant travel. Between races across the country, partnerships with hotel chains, airlines, and travel services align with her actual lifestyle rather than manufactured endorsements.
The smartest partnerships often come from categories everyone else is overlooking.
Every month you wait, these opportunities become more competitive and more expensive. The brands that move now will be the ones writing case studies about their early investment in a movement that's reshaping sports marketing entirely.
FAQS: What Every Brand Wants to Know
Q: How do we justify drag racing partnerships to leadership when our target audience isn't motorsports fans?
Look for athletes whose professional backgrounds align with your brand's technical needs. Ida's electrical experience provides authentic credibility for technology and STEM brands. The partnership story becomes about professional expertise validation, not motorsports marketing.
Q: What if we don't have the budget for a full-season motorsports partnership?
Structure deals around NHRA's geographic expansion rather than demanding full-season commitments. Regional partnerships let you target specific markets like Atlanta or Maryland while maximizing budget efficiency. You're not paying for exposure in markets that don't matter to your brand.
Q: What's the timeline for entering drag racing partnerships before they become oversaturated?
Consider entering during NHRA's current strategic expansion and enhanced media production phase. The 75th anniversary content initiatives and streaming growth create additional value that won't exist indefinitely. Early entry means relationship building during growth rather than fighting for attention in an established market.
