Drag racing is a sport not just won on the track.

It is not just won in the pit area or back home at the shop. Success in drag racing starts behind closed doors with handshakes, signed agreements, and mutual understanding.

The fact of the matter is the best racers in the world don’t get where they are on skill alone. It takes savvy marketing men and women, successful public relations and relationships with the right people and businesses to turn driver skill into actual round wins.

Paul Lee knows that fact perhaps better than most.

A longtime racer and savvy businessman himself, who owns his own Paul Lee Racing operation alongside a trio of companies under the Wharton Automotive Group, which includes McLeod Racing, FTI Performance and Silver Sport Transmissions, Lee knows that to take his operation
to the next level, he needs the right people by his side.

“I am passionate for this sport,” a confident Lee said. “I’ve loved it since I was a little kid and I am still that little kid today almost 50 years later. This has not been an overnight thing. I’ve been working toward this since I was 13 years old. The lifetime commitment that I’ve made to doing what we are doing is something I am proud of, but I hope for more and that is what we are out here doing now.”

Lee recently paired with industry executive Steven Cole and added savvy marketing person, Top Fuel driver and team owner Krista Baldwin to the Paul Lee Racing team. Baldwin, who not only drives the McLeod-sponsored dragster, but is also the Creative Director for the Wharton Automotive Group, helps take this race team from a single-car operation to a hopeful megateam in the making. Lee hopes marketing a pair of cars from each of the premier nitro categories within the NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series is the next step in the team’s progression.

“What I see, when you are out there marketing drag racing, you have the top two classes. So when you are working with a marketing partner now, you have a two-for-one,” Lee said. “Having a Funny Car and a dragster is the ultimate marketing tool in the sport of drag racing.”

Cole has been involved in professional motorsports for over 25 years, which includes time in NHRA, NASCAR and IndyCar. The past 10 years he has worked exclusively in drag racing with high-profile race teams such as John Force Racing, Stringer Performance and with the IHRA drag
racing series.

Lee, who met Cole through a mutual friend – one of the most well-known drivers in NHRA history – hopes this pairing will help take Paul Lee Racing to another level on the track.

“We have some big changes as far as the business part of our team. That is led by bringing in and working with Steve who has been a longtime friend of mine for many years,” Lee said. “We were actually introduced through Tom ‘The Mongoose’ McEwen years and years ago. He was a mentor to both of us. He always said, ‘You guys need to work together’ and now here we are finally working together. The only sad thing is the Mongoose isn’t here to see all of this come together.”

And one of the first moves Cole made when he came to Paul Lee Racing was to help bring Baldwin into the mix and begin marketing a diverse two-car team.

“Being at a few different drag racing teams at the highest level for the last 10 or 12 years of my career, it is important for businesses to look at the broadcast on Fox and see potential. Especially on the business-to-business side, getting those individuals to look at these nitro cars and say, ‘These are pretty badass,’” Cole said. “When I was at John Force Racing, we only had Funny Cars. When Brittany (Force) decided she wanted to run a dragster, that was the lightning in the bottle that people were excited about. People got to see a dragster and a Funny Car with the same team. I saw that and went to businesses to offer them something that a lot of race teams can’t.

“Taking nothing away from the other pro classes, people want to be with the nitro cars. And, from a business side, there is no better person to work with than Paul because he understands the business of racing and is very successful in the business world already.”

And for Lee, there was no one he wanted to partner with from a racing standpoint more than Baldwin. She  has been with Lee’s company since she was an intern in college, and has become an emerging leader with the team. More recently, Baldwin – the granddaughter of legendary drag
racer Chris “the Golden Greek” Karamesines – made her Top Fuel debut in 2021, and has quickly become a media darling on the track.

“Krista has been with McLeod since she was in college. Now she is working for the company full-time and she has grown within the company,” Lee explained. “The choice was simple because Krista is part of our family and to have her as the dragster was a pretty exciting addition.”

Now Lee begins his quest to build something special at Paul Lee Racing with a team in place that, he believes, can take his operation to new heights both on and off the track. And he is already thinking about the future of the team beyond even himself.

“Our ultimate goal is to have a multiple-car team, to be like a DSR used to be. Ultimately, two dragsters and two Funny Cars is our goal,” Lee said. “We are building. This is our start. I’m a lot older than Krista, who is just starting out. There will be a time where I won’t be driving anymore, but I’ll have a young driver in the car. These are things I am already thinking about.

“I have a passion and a commitment to the sport. You need marketing partners to do that, and that is what we are here to do. We have to do well on the track and show them what we can do. Not all of these marketing partnerships are based on performance, but it definitely helps.”