Anyone who says relationships aren’t important in drag racing hasn’t been paying attention.
Alexis DeJoria and Ida Zetterström spent the 2025 NHRA season as teammates at JCM Racing, but the relationship that developed there didn’t disappear when the team did. Neither did the one Zetterström built with Bandero Premium Tequila.
A year later, those connections are putting the pieces back together for drag racing’s biggest weekend.
DeJoria and Zetterström will reunite under the Team Bandero banner for the 72nd annual NHRA U.S. Nationals, Sept. 4-7 at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park. DeJoria will carry the Bandero Café colors in Funny Car, while Zetterström returns to Top Fuel competition in a Bandero Premium Tequila dragster.
They won’t technically be teammates this time. DeJoria competes with John Force Racing, while Zetterström’s Top Fuel dragster will be fielded by Shawn Reed Racing, but the Bandero connection has effectively reunited them for Indy.
Bandero’s relationship with DeJoria dates to 2021. Its connection with Zetterström came later, during the 2025 season when the 2023 FIA European Top Fuel champion raced alongside DeJoria at JCM.
What Bandero officials saw went beyond what Zetterström could do with a Top Fuel dragster. Her interaction with fans, enthusiasm for representing sponsors and relationship with DeJoria left an impression that survived long after their season together ended.
When Bandero decided it wanted a Top Fuel presence alongside DeJoria’s Funny Car at Indianapolis, there wasn’t much searching required.
Zetterström was already part of the family.
“Indy is where you show up in a big way,” Bandero co-founder and CEO Jonathan Kendrick said. “NHRA has an incredibly loyal fan base, and the U.S. Nationals is the biggest stage in the sport. Alexis has done a tremendous job of highlighting the Bandero brand, and after getting to know Ida last season, we knew she was someone we wanted to continue working with.
“We’re especially proud to have two accomplished women carrying our brands in Top Fuel and Funny Car, and we couldn’t ask for better representatives at an event of this magnitude.”
