Toni Breidinger may be only 26 years old, but she carries ambitions far beyond her years. She wants her mark on motorsports to echo in the same way Danica Patrick’s influence reshaped NASCAR.
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Patrick carved out space for women in the sport and showed she could run toe-to-toe with stock car racing’s best, as evidenced by her 2013 Daytona 500 pole and a top-10 finish in that same race. Breidinger hopes to spark that same fire in young female racers, and considers that impact just as meaningful as anything she might accomplish behind the wheel.
While several drivers measure their success solely by the wins, trophies, or championships they bag, Breidinger builds her vision of legacy on something different.
“There’s so much I want to achieve, career-wise, but I think if I look at something as my legacy, I want to hopefully create a more welcoming environment, hopefully pave a path for females in the sport. I think that’s been the most rewarding thing for me this year is just the young girls coming up to me and saying that I inspire them or that they’re starting to race because of me,” she said.
For her, that response and the drive to leave an impact outweigh any finish she has recorded or any campaign she has represented. Breidinger sees herself in those young girls because she once stood exactly where they stand now, wide-eyed, ambitious, and searching for a reflection of what might be possible.
When she speaks to younger generations of women trying to break barriers, whether in motorsports or in another male-dominated field, or any pursuit they feel drawn to, she offers the same message every time: “Don’t be afraid to be the first you.”
Breidinger urges women and young girls to learn from her experiences, given that her own path to NASCAR has looked nothing like she imagined as a child. It has not been perfect, predictable, or linear and has come with challenges, moments of doubt, and stretches filled with highs and lows. Yet she believes those wrenches shape athletes for competition, and her story offers crucial insight to those looking in.
With a season-best finish of P18 at Rockingham Speedway, two top-20s, and 13 top-25s during her first full-time Truck Series stint this year, the California native accepted her big leap to the first rung of the top 3 series in the sport. “I think it was more of a learning curve than what I was probably anticipating,” she added.
Yet, she maintains that the same results are not the sole measure of her year, with her sights set on making a larger impact, while climbing the ranks towards the front of the field.
