Toni Breidinger juggles racing and modeling as the only woman full-time in NASCAR this season

ROCKINGHAM, N.C. — Along pit road about 14 minutes before the race begins, Toni Breidinger is leaning against her red No. 5 Toyota truck, partially covering up the Raising Cane’s logo emblazoned on the side. She picks up an ice cold can of Celsius off the truck bed and presses it against her face, embracing the refreshing feeling as the sun beats down on the blacktop on this Friday afternoon. Breidinger does this a few times in the moments leading up to the start of the Black’s Tire 200, the first NASCAR race held at Rockingham Speedway in 12 years.

“The Rock” — a 1.017-mile oval track in North Carolina’s Richmond County — refused to die. The iconic speedway, where racers and fans gathered in 2001 a week after the tragic death of the legendary Dale Earnhardt, was largely abandoned by NASCAR in 2004 after it became somewhat of a bargaining chip in a lawsuit and after the sport went searching for new venues and audiences out west and up north. Like North Wilkesboro before it, Rockingham became a casualty of expansion. Two decades later, during a time in which NASCAR is reaching back to its roots, Rockingham is seeing high-level racing again after it was taken into capable hands and got a jolt of funding for renovations from the American Rescue Plan Act.

Breidinger is too young to remember the last time the Cup Series raced here, when Matt Kenseth won in 2004. And when Kyle Larson won here in 2013 — the last time the Truck Series ran at Rockingham — all that Breidinger knew about NASCAR, she says, is that Kyle Busch drove the car with M&M’s on it. Back in those days, Breidinger was much more interested in open-wheel racing, like IndyCar.

This past weekend though, as the Craftsman Truck Series and Xfinity Series descended on Rockingham, Breidinger was one of the biggest stars there.

In the moments leading up to the Truck Series race on Friday, the 25-year-old — who is the only woman racing full-time in NASCAR’s three highest levels this season — happily obliged the many fans who approached her for photos. It was a wide variety of people seeking selfies with her, including mothers and little girls, and middle-aged dudes sporting Earnhardt shirts.

Between Instagram, TikTok and X, Breidinger has about 5 million followers — or double the combined social media followings of the three most recent Cup Series champions: Joey Logano, Ryan Blaney and Kyle Larson.

She’s the lone woman in the field for this Truck Series race, as will be the case many times this season. Breidinger is also the first Arab-American woman to compete in NASCAR.

Simply put, Breidinger is doing things in NASCAR that no other person who looks like her has done before, and she’s bringing a big audience along with her for the ride.

“To me, I’m just doing my thing that I’ve been doing for so many years. I’m just chasing my dreams and being a racecar driver. I didn’t realize I was doing something different,” Breidinger told SB Nation. “Then I started to look around. So, yeah, I guess I kind of do see myself as a trailblazer and I take more pride in it now. I feel like I’m a little bit more self-aware of it.”

Between those pictures, she takes sips of water and snaps on ankle braces. She reaches for that can of Celsius again — Breidinger says the Mango Lemonade flavor is her favorite — and holds it against her cheek, enjoying the cool it brings before zipping up her fire suit, pulling on her helmet, and climbing into a hot truck where she’ll reach speeds upwards of 160 miles per hour. As Breidinger snaps her steering wheel in place, one member of her pit crew fastens the net across her window, while another removes that half-empty Celsius can from her truck bed.

She’s all alone now and totally in control. And then — for the first time in more than a decade at this cathedral of racing — the call comes from the loudspeakers: “Drivers, start your engines!”

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For all of its history, the majority of drivers in any given NASCAR race have largely fit the same profile: male, straight and white. Recently, NASCAR even changed the name of its 21-year-old “Drive for Diversity” program to “Driver Development.” It produced the likes of Larson, Bubba Wallace, Truck Series driver Rajah Caruth, and Breidinger.

“I think if you look back to like 20 years ago, there is a great improvement in diversity in this sport. But then also, the fact that I’m the only female racing full-time — I mean, to me, that’s not any improvement,” Breidinger says. “There’s still not enough being done.”

While there is work needed to improve the makeup of NASCAR, Breidinger getting to this point in her career is a good sign for those who look like her that aim to follow in her footsteps. However, her path to becoming a full-time Truck Series driver with Tricon Garage was an unorthodox one and may not be duplicable.

Breidinger grew up in California’s Bay Area in a town south of San Francisco called Hillsborough. She is the daughter of a Lebanese mother and a German father. Nada Yanni was a preschool teacher while Charles worked in construction.

When Breidinger was about 9-years-old, her father saw an advertisement for a go-kart track and thought it would be a fun activity to take Toni and her twin sister Annie to. Up to that point in her childhood, Breidinger had tried everything to find a passion for something, or simply a hobby that she truly loved. She took lessons in piano and karate. She joined teams for soccer and gymnastics. Nothing stuck. But when she settled into the seat of an open-air go-kart, everything changed.

“I was just like, yeah, I want to do this again,” Breidinger recalls.

And again, and again, and again, and again.

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Breidinger embraced the feeling of going fast and cherished the ability to be in complete control.

She began driving go-karts competitively and wasn’t deterred at the age of 12 when she got into a wild accident. Racing in what Breidinger remembers as “basically a big parking lot” in Fontana, California, she was heading into a turn when the left rear of her car made contact with the right front of another driver. The collision flipped Breidinger’s vehicle, throwing her out of the kart and onto the hard pavement. Remarkably, she walked away with just a broken arm and her confidence fully intact. It’s the first and — knock on wood — the last serious injury she’s suffered while racing.

“It was pretty crazy, but I wasn’t scared or anything. I was very determined to get back in the go-kart. I don’t think it fazed me,” Breidinger says. “If I’m wrecking, I’m never scared for myself. It’s more of like, ‘Oh gosh, how bad is damage on the truck?’”

Her mother chimes in, recalling the decade-old incident: “The next day she wanted to race.”

At the age of 15, Breidinger saw her first NASCAR race, when Carl Edwards won at the Sonoma road course. Months later, she saw a Truck Series race in Iowa. It was this year when she began to fall in love with stock-car racing.

After Breidinger graduated from high school, she didn’t pursue college like her sister Annie, who graduated from Purdue University with a degree in engineering and has since worked for Tesla, General Motors, Apple and Ford.

There are certain professions where, to give oneself the best chances of achieving career goals, they have to relocate to the heart of whatever industry that is. Budding actors go to Los Angeles. Tech bros go to Silicon Valley. Folks with dreams of becoming country music singers move to Nashville. The top college football players often find their NFL launching pads in the SEC or Big Ten. And if you want to be a NASCAR driver, you end up in North Carolina.

So, that’s what Breidinger did at the age of 17, taking up residency in Mooresville — a small town just outside of Charlotte widely known as “Race City, USA.” It’s home to countless drivers and dozens of garages and manufacturers.

“I wanted to put all my eggs in one basket with racing,” Breidinger says.

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In 2018, she made her debut in the ARCA Menards Series — viewed by many as a minor league or feeder system for NASCAR — and placed 10th in her first ARCA race at Toledo. She eventually became a full-time ARCA driver with Venturini Motorsports, finishing sixth in the standings in 2022, ninth in 2023 and fourth in 2024, the latter of which made her the highest-performing woman driver in ARCA history.

During her rise in ARCA, Breidinger started working with a mental health coach to help calm her anxiety and overthinking. She felt like she hadn’t been performing at her best behind the wheel and sought help.

“The main thing that we worked on was just being present,” she says. “I feel like I never executed anything well because I was always really worrying about the next thing.”

When the Heart of America 200 began on May 6, 2023, at Kansas Speedway, Breidinger caught herself doing something she had never done before in a racecar. Behind her helmet, she was smiling. She was firmly in the moment, and enjoying every second of her first Truck Series race. She finished 15th, which still stands as her best finish in the series. It also put Breidinger into the history books as the best debut for a woman driver in the third-tier NASCAR series.

After her success in ARCA and few solid showings in one-off truck races, Breidinger signed a contract with Toyota’s marketing department and joined Tricon Garage as a full-time driver for this Truck Series season.

“It’s very special. It’s something that I’ve dreamed of,” Breidinger said of getting a full-time NASCAR gig. “I thought I was ready to make that step, that I was getting too comfortable in the ARCA series, like I was almost getting complacent. I wanted to push myself. I like those sink or swim moments.”

Mitchell Northam / SB Nation

Breidinger had aspirations of being a model when she was younger and still lived in California, but put those dreams aside when she moved to North Carolina to pursue racing full-time. She thought she was too short to be a model anyway, and didn’t really know how to break into the business. But as she found success as a driver — and as her social media profiles ballooned — modeling opportunities came her way.

Her latest venture into this other side of her career is appearing in Sports Illustrated’s Swimsuit edition, which comes out next month. Sample photographs on S.I.’s website show Breidinger in an emerald green bikini on a beach in Boca Raton, Florida. She’s the first active NASCAR driver to appear in the magazine.

Perhaps even more than appearing in the iconic magazine, Breidinger was elated about the idea of being in the same publication as other stars in women’s sports. She’s a big fan of Los Angeles Sparks’ center Cameron Brink, who is also featured in this year’s edition. Golfer Nelly Korda and gymnasts Suni Lee and Jordan Chiles are in it too.

“When I saw the lineup of all the girls doing it, I was like, ‘This is insane.’ Just all these amazing female athletes that I look up to,” Breidinger says. “To be amongst them was very special and an honor, and kind of almost like an imposter syndrome moment. The experience was amazing.”

But don’t get it twisted about Breidinger. She’s a racecar driver who also models — not the other way around.

“It’s funny, because people don’t see it like this,” she says. “They think that I’m like a model who drives, but I’ve been racing since I was 9.”

However, Breidinger points out, her modeling gigs have been the gas-in-the-tank for her motorsports career. The two go hand-in-hand. She’s able to be in Sports Illustrated’s Swimsuit magazine because she competes in NASCAR, and she’s able to drive in one of the highest levels of stock-car racing because her modeling has attracted investors, like Raising Cane’s, Sunoco and Celsius. Breidinger doesn’t shy away from the role that modeling and social media have played in powering her racing aspirations.

“I wouldn’t be racing if it wasn’t for modeling. Like, quite honestly, I wouldn’t have the funds to go do it,” Breidinger says. “I think that’s an important part of how I’m even able to race. I wouldn’t be here without it. So I’m always grateful for those opportunities. It’s tricky to balance sometimes, but it’s either that or I don’t race.”

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Like a basketball or football player might do before a game to study an opponent’s tendencies, part of Breidinger’s preparation for races is to watch film. Ahead of this one in Rockingham, she examined the 2013 Truck Series race closely.

“I’ve gotten a lot more into it, and I’m a lot bigger on note-taking. When I was younger, I watched races all the time, but now I watch them with a different lens,” Breidinger says. “Why are they driving the way they are? Where are they trending? I feel like I’m analyzing it in a different way.”

Entering this race, Breidinger is still trying to find her footing as a full-time driver in the Truck Series. The best she’s finished this season in six previous races was 21st. And while she says that her five-year plan ends with her becoming a full-time driver in the Cup Series — and knowing that only wins and consistently great finishes will get her there — she’s trying to set modest goals for herself too.

“I have different levels of success. There’s the results level, like, everybody wants to win. But also, you can’t always control results. So, I’m also looking at, am I improving? Did I improve this week? Did I learn? If I can achieve that, then it’s a success,” Breidinger says. “I feel like I’ve really grown and developed, which was the goal of going into this.”

On the second lap of Friday’s race, the caution flag flies out after several cars receive contact. The No. 5 Raising Cane’s Toyota has some damage above the front driver’s side tire, so Breidinger has to make an early stop on pit road. The car gets patched up and she receives a new set of tires before being sent back on her way.

As the race enters its final 20 laps, Breidinger’s mother stands nervously a few feet behind her pit road box. She’s sort of pacing in place, turning, shifting her weight from one foot to the other, taking a step to her side and step back, taking her glasses off and putting them back on, all while holding her phone in her hand which displays a live leaderboard. She swipes down, refreshing it once more.

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With two laps to go, Breidinger climbed to 18th after falling back as far as 28th after the early pit stop. She’ll finish there, marking her first top 20 finish of the season.

“A baby step,” her mother says. “She did very good. It’s a tough track.”

Indeed, Breidinger’s best finish of the season so far was a small victory on a rough day at Rockingham.

“That honestly felt like, by far, the hardest race of the season,” Breidinger said after hopping out of her truck. “I started to get the hang of it… I’m happy I improved continuously throughout the run.”

Breidinger has 18 more races to go this season. She’s especially excited about the opportunity to compete at North Wilkesboro and Pocono. Eventually, she wants to get to where no woman has gone before in the three highest levels of NASCAR: victory lane.

If she can get there, she hopes it will represent a moment of empowerment and be a spark for other women to chase their racecar-driving dreams.

“I do feel like there is a responsibility that I have to help pave the path for other women in the sport. I am the only female competing full-time, and it shouldn’t be like that,” Breidinger says. “There have been other females that competed full-time prior to me — they hit this glass ceiling, it seems like.”

Indeed. And Breidinger is trying to shatter it.