Going by the numbers, no driver across NASCAR’s top three national touring circuits is as popular as Toni Breidinger.
The 27-year-old who was the first Arab-American woman to compete in the top level of stockcar racing has more than 5.8 million combined followers across Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, X and YouTube.
After being the only woman to race full-time in NASCAR last season, fans haven’t heard much from her on the track this year. Due to her part-time schedule with Rackley W.A.R., Breidinger hasn’t gotten behind the wheel of the No. 27 Chevrolet in the Craftsman Truck Series since the May 15 race at Dover — the race that wound up being Kyle Busch's last win before his shocking death.
But Breidinger has quietly been working on her racecraft.
She’s getting back to her roots this year and returned to racing late-models, winning a competition at the historic Hickory Motor Speedway on July 11. Days later, she was in New York City, stunting on the red carpet at the ESPYs — a display of how she’s able to successfully balance her on-track aspirations with her modeling career.
This weekend, Breidinger returns to NASCAR when the Truck Series races at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park in Brownsburg, Indiana on Friday, July 24 at 8 p.m. ET. In the TSport 200, Breidinger will drive the No. 27 Chevrolet splashed with a Celsius paint scheme.
Between her last race and this upcoming one, Breidinger also starred in a new campaign for Kristin Ess Hair — the K-Turn, for their 12-in-1 leave-in primer. It’s not a product that most drivers in the male-dominated NASCAR can say they’ve used, but Breidinger can, giving her a pathway to unique partnerships the sport hasn’t seen before.
“It's definitely special to get their support. There's this new wave of partners coming in and supporting female drivers. It just makes so much sense,” Breidinger told USA TODAY Sports. “I think it's brands that we truly align with and use, like, for me on race day, everyone's asking, ‘How does your hair look like that when you’re racing in the heat?’ And I'm like, it's these products. They’re partners that other drivers aren’t exactly able to work with in an authentic way.
“I've always really loved to tap into my femininity, so it's cool to be able to do that on the racetrack now, just blend my two worlds together, and it's really authentic to me.”
Breidinger was the first driver to bring a sponsorship from a luxury fashion house into NASCAR when she landed a partnership with COACH. She’s also featured in campaigns for Victoria’s Secret and GAP, and last year became the first active NASCAR driver to model for the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue.
Like Katherine Legge has done with e.l.f. Cosmetics, Breidinger is bringing beauty brands to NASCAR and tapping into the growing number of women in the sport’s fanbase.
“I felt like it was very true to me, and I think it aligns with just being true to yourself, empowering yourself and doing what feels authentic to you,” Breidinger said of her partnership with Kristin Ess. “Hopefully down the road, I think a Kristin Ess car would look so iconic.”
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 — a preschool teacher and a construction worker.
At the age of 9, Breidinger sat in the seat of an open-wheel go-kart for the first time and everything changed: she knew she wanted to be a racecar driver. Even when she was thrown from a go-kart and broke her arm at the age of 12, she wasn’t deterred. At 15, she went to a NASCAR race for the first time, watching Carl Edwards take the checkered flag at Sonoma. Two years later, she moved to the sport’s capital of Charlotte, North Carolina.
Bredinger then raced in the ARCA Menards Series, NASCAR’s version of pro baseball’s minor leagues, and became part of NASCAR’s Drive for Diversity program which has produced the likes of Bubba Wallace, Kyle Larson and Rajah Caruth.
After piling up 29 top-10 finishes in ARCA — and finishing fourth in points for the championship in 2024 — she made the jump to NASCAR’s Truck Series in 2025, joining Tricon Garage on a full-time deal to pilot the No. 5 Toyota. But things didn’t go all that well for Breidinger and the transition proved to be tougher than advertised. Her best finish came at Rockingham when she was the 18th to cross the finish line.
“I kind of went in not really knowing what to expect. I feel like I learned a lot about myself during that year, on and off the track,” Breidinger said. “At the end of the season, I was like, what do I feel like I need to really grow as a driver, grow as a person and what aligns with me now? I wanted to switch it up. I thought joining a new team, new manufacturer, is what was speaking to me and I just wanted to take that leap.”
So Breidinger did, parting ways with Tricon and joining Rackley W.A.R. on a part-time deal. On paper, it’s easy to say that move hasn’t worked out for Breidinger either. She has failed to qualify for three races, then, in the two that she did qualify, finished 18th at Texas and 26th at Dover.
Still, she’s at peace with her path.
“Our season has had some ups and downs, but I'm still confident that I made the right decision, and something that felt right for me, and I feel like is going to be helpful in the long run in my career,” Breidinger said. “I feel like I have the big picture in mind.”
Because she’s not running a full-time NASCAR schedule, Breidinger has had time for other racing this season, like running late-models and getting virtual reps on iRacing. While Breidinger shares much of her life on social media, she hasn’t yet taken fans behind the scenes into some of the work she’s doing to improve her racecraft.
“I post so much, but I do feel like some of my training stuff I like to keep to myself. You hustle in silence and let your work show on the track. I like to go about it that way. That's for me, my place to build and grow,” Breidinger said. “With the late-models at Hickory, I just wanted to work on being on older tires and stuff like that.”
Breidinger is hoping her work shows itself this weekend at IRP in Indiana, which she calls one of her favorite short tracks. She had a ninth-place finish there in the ARCA Series in 2023.
“For me, I think I've really just been trying to focus on what I can control, and as long as I do a good job of what's in my control, then I think I could still be at peace,” Breidinger said. “At the end of the day, I believe in myself, and I have that inner belief in myself, so I think that's the most important thing. And to be honest, the critics are probably sitting on their couch.”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Toni Breidinger gets back to basics, embraces her femininity in NASCAR
