The newly appointed IHRA CEO Christian Byrd spent much of last week putting out fires from what some might describe as a premature announcement of dragstrip purchases. It’s a new week and a new set of objectives. For the second-generation marketing specialist, his approach to this week is laying out the future for the reinvigorated race series, aiming for a comeback in drag racing’s mainstream.
Byrd believes whatever dragstrip situation there is will work itself out, and in the meantime, he and his expanding team plan to focus on the future facing the IHRA and its tracks, including new and improved insurance offerings.
“We haven’t told the world about that,” Byrd added.
Byrd said that among the other forthcoming announcements will be a live-streaming partnership and other mainstream American partnerships. Add in partnerships with the Pinks: All Out series and No Prep inclusion, and he sees a revitalized IHRA that transcends more than just nitro-fueled and professional drag racing and a robust sportsman drag racing series.
“The new IHRA is going to be more diverse when we look at the types of events we’re running, the lifestyle and entertainment events,” Byrd explained. “I’ve had great meetings this week about the music industry and music business about festivals and concerts, and patriotic festivals and celebrations across the country with top-notch musicians.
“We’ll diversify into other forms of motorsports. I’ll show that, whether it be on water or on snow, or snowmobiles on asphalt or dirt, we’re looking at taking our facilities and turning them into playgrounds for car enthusiasts. So what you’re going to see is our vision: IHRA will become more than drag racing. It’s going to be more of basically a one-stop shop for everybody that loves cars, the automotive lifestyle, and just motorsports across the board in so many different varieties.”
Byrd points out that the IHRA could soon live up to its moniker with an approach to taking the brand globally.
“We’re definitely looking closely at international expansion from our sanctioning body side to do more of the better tracks, whether we look to Australia, to Europe, Canada, and Mexico,” Byrd explained. “All these things are on the table. So we’re really looking at a global perspective, eventually, and being a world leader in racing.”
Byrd believes for drag racing to evolve to the next level, it has to become a true entertainment venue.
“Not just what we’re known for in the past,” Byrd explained. “We have to evolve; we have to become more dynamic as a company. We need to bring more people on board to build out this company. As CEO, that’s been to look at the needs of the company and grow. We have a small company right now on paper and at least a small organization with a lot of good team members. But you’ll see us probably grow into a better, more robust staff to handle our racers on a weekly basis, to make sure the information flows better on our media platforms, and to really put some more effort now that we’re through the property acquisition phase, into the event development phase.”
The property acquisition phase could also involve constructing their own facilities. Byrd’s background also included being part of the process in constructing two of the most highly regarded dragstrips in the United States, zMax Dragway in Concord, NC., and transformation of Bristol Dragway in Tennessee.
“It’s always on the table,” Byrd said. “When you work for a visionary, you never say never. It’s always intriguing, the price we’re paying for drag strips, and you look at, if we can find the right real estate in the right marketplace that makes sense for our racers and our fans again and our sponsors, we have to look at that option [of building].”
Some might call Byrd’s vision where someone throws a party, and a drag race breaks out. Byrd sees it as a backyard barbeque that includes top-notch drag racing.
“We plan to add more excitement to the events themselves,” Byrd said. “We aim to make them fan-friendly, try to make them racer-family. I am just looking at a new way of doing things from an event standpoint. People’s attention spans aren’t very long these days, whether it be watching TV or streaming on their devices or buying a ticket and coming to one of our events. We need to have a lot of fun in a short period of time and give people bang for their buck.
“We want to try to address some of the shortfalls of drag racing, particularly in all sports. When it comes to oildowns or rain showers and things like that, we just have to get better at entertaining people. We want to encourage everybody to go into the pits, enjoy themselves, and all the while have great activities for people to do. So we need to be fan-friendly, fan-first.”
BOBBY BENNETT: AND THAT’S THE WAY IT IS … APRIL 29, 2025