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Female Top Fuel Racer Ida Zetterström Looks to Match Fellow Swede Felix Rosenqvist’s Indy 500 Win with U.S. Nationals Title

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Ida Zetterström (Photo Courtesy Tom Blatter)
  • Sweden’s Ida Zetterström will be seeking to match her fellow countryman and Indy 500 champion Felix Rosenqvist in this year’s NHRA U.S. Nationals in her Top Fuel dragster
  • Zetterström, the 2023 FIA European Top Fuel champion, began her NHRA career in 2024 and, last year, she placed runner-up at the NHRA Gateway Nationals in St. Louis
  • Zetterström has been a fan favorite since her debut in NHRA Top Fuel competition and will drive the Shawn Reed dragster in drag racing’s biggest race of the 2026 NHRA tour
  • Most recently, Zetterström captured the Drag Festival at Sweden’s Mantrop Park Drag Strip as she prepared for the Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park event on Sept. 4-7
  • A former Junior Dragster driver and Street Stock motorcycle champion, Zetterström’s engaging personality has her as a NHRA track interviewer when not in a 330-mph dragster

By :Tom Blatter

BROWNSBURG, Ind., Sept. 1, 2026 – Sweden’s Ida Zetterström comes to the biggest drag racing event of the 2026 NHRA season, the NHRA U.S. Nationals, on Sept. 4-7 attempting to match the victory of her fellow countryman Felix Rosenqvist, who won the prestigious Indianapolis 500 just down the street at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in May.

While Rosenqvist travels 235 miles per hour at the famed IMS oval,Zetterström guides her nitro-burning Bandero Premium Tequila/Dodge Europe Top Fuel dragster at over 330 m.p.h. at the 72nd annual ‘Big Go” drag racing classic in hopes of taking another Swede to victory lane on Monday, Sept. 7.

ForZetterström, she doesn’t take the “straight line” sport lightly after beginning in Junior Dragsters at age eight and capturing the 2018 FIA Street Stock motorcycle championship. She parlayed those experiences into the 2023 FIA European Top Fuel title and came to the United States in 2024 to compete for the coveted NHRA Mission Top Fuel championship.

At 32, the personable blonde driver has been racing in a limited schedule in the 20-race NHRA Mission national campaign, but Zetterström considers the U.S. Nationals her in Indy 500 and will pilot Shawn Reed’s 12,000-horsepower Bandero Premium Tequila/Dodge Europe dragster beginning with Friday (Sept. 4) qualifying.

“It feels great to come back and race in the famed U.S. Nationals, our biggest drag race of the year,” said Zetterström, who serves as NHRA interviewer when not behind of the wheel of Top Fueler. “After Felix won the Indy 500, I thought, ‘what a wild Swedish double,’ if I could win at Indy too. I want to thank Shawn, who has won in Top Fuel already (Reading, 2025) for the opportunity to drive his car in the U.S. Nationals.

“I was out of a race car for a few months, but I came back last month in Sweden and won the Drag Festival at Mantorp Park. But I feel good about heading into the U.S. Nationals. It’s always a tough one, but we have a team which can challenge for the win. I can’t wait for that big race.”

The NHRA U.S. Nationals nitro qualifying is set for Friday (Sept. 4) at 7:30 p.m. followed by on Saturday and Sunday (Sept. 5-6) with the finals on Monday (Sept. 7) at 10 a.m. EDT.

For more information on NHRA, visit NHRA.com.