Toni Breidinger Bio
Antoinette Marie Breidinger, known professionally as Toni Breidinger, is an American professional stock car racing driver and model. Born on July 14, 1999, in San Francisco, California, she last competed full-time in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, driving the No. 5 Toyota Tundra TRD Pro for Tricon Garage. Breidinger is recognized as the first female Arab-American driver to compete in NASCAR, being of Lebanese and German descent.
Early Life and Background
Toni Breidinger was born on July 14, 1999, in San Francisco, California, and raised in the nearby community of Hillsborough. She is of German and Lebanese descent, with her father Mark Breidinger of German heritage and her mother Melinda Breidinger of Lebanese heritage. Breidinger was born alongside a twin sister named Annie.
She attended Mercy High School in Burlingame, where she graduated in 2017. In interviews, Breidinger has spoken fondly of her high school years, highlighting the cultural diversity she experienced growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her father introduced her to motorsports after seeing a newspaper advertisement for a local go-kart school.
At the age of nine, Breidinger began racing go-karts after her father took her and her twin sister to a go-kart school. After several lessons, her father bought the two go-karts for them to race. She has described her introduction to racing as bringing her a sense of independence that she wanted as a child. In 2011, she suffered the only major injury of her career when she and competitor Logan Sargeant crashed during a go-kart race at the CalSpeed Karting Center, with Breidinger sustaining a broken arm after being thrown from the car.
Path to NASCAR
After five years of go-kart racing, Breidinger moved up to the USAC Western US Asphalt Midget Series at age 15 in 2014. In her first season in the series, she finished runner-up in the standings, and she repeated that result the following year. In 2016, she won the series championship, becoming the winningest female driver in any USAC asphalt division at the time.
Initially wanting to pursue a career in open-wheel racing, Breidinger shifted her focus to stock car racing after watching late model races at Madera Speedway while competing in midget cars. Although her father initially refused to let her race late models, he relented after she won the Western Midget Series championship in 2016. After graduating high school in 2017, she moved to Charlotte, North Carolina, to further pursue her racing career.
In 2018, she made her debut in the ARCA Racing Series for Venturini Motorsports, finishing tenth at Madison. The following year, she was selected to make the initial top-60 round for the W Series, though she was not chosen as one of the 18 drivers for the season. She joined GMS Racing’s driver development program in 2019, and in 2020 she raced a full season in the Carolina Pro Late Model Series, finishing fourth in the standings.
Toni Breidinger Career
Early Career (2014-2020)
Toni Breidinger began her competitive racing career in 2014 in the USAC Western US Asphalt Midget Series at age 15, racing open-wheel cars on asphalt tracks across the western United States. Her early years in the series were marked by consistency, as she finished runner-up in the standings in both 2014 and 2015 before securing the series championship in 2016.
After her midget championship, Breidinger transitioned to stock car racing, competing primarily in late model events. She joined GMS Racing’s driver development program in 2019 and raced a full season in the Carolina Pro Late Model Series in 2020, finishing fourth in the final standings. These years built the foundation for her later progression into NASCAR’s national touring series.
ARCA Racing Series Breakthrough (2021-2024)
In 2021, Breidinger announced a part-time schedule in the ARCA Racing Series alongside the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series for Young’s Motorsports. In her debut with the team, she finished eighteenth, becoming the first Arab-American woman to race in any national touring NASCAR series. Midway through the season, she moved to Venturini Motorsports to race additional ARCA events, joining the Toyota Racing Development (TRD) team.
The following year, Breidinger ran her first full-time season in ARCA for the 2022 season with Venturini Motorsports. She finished in the top-ten at Daytona in the season-opener and earned four top-ten finishes in the opening ten rounds. At the conclusion of her first full-time season, she finished sixth in the series standings, obtaining six total top-ten finishes.
Breidinger remained at Venturini Motorsports for the 2023 season, scaling back to a part-time ARCA schedule while also racing full-time in the inaugural season of the Toyota North America GR Cup. In 2023, she secured her first top-five finish in ARCA, earning four top-fives during the season with a best result of third at Kansas. Also in 2023, she made her debut in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series for Tricon Garage, finishing fifteenth at the Heart of America 200. In 2024, she returned to a full-time ARCA schedule, achieving eleven top-ten finishes with a best result of sixth, and finished fourth in the series standings.
Tricon Garage Era (2023-Present)
Breidinger first joined Tricon Garage for Truck Series starts in 2023, racing three events for the team that year. In 2024, she made an additional one-off Truck Series start for Tricon Garage, finishing 27th in the series-opener. For 2025, she moved up full-time to the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, signing with Tricon Garage to drive the No. 5 Toyota Tundra TRD Pro.
Her rookie Truck Series season presented significant challenges, with two top-20 finishes through the first 15 races and a best result of 18th at Rockingham. In a May 2025 interview, Breidinger described the learning curve as steep, noting that the transition from ARCA cars to trucks required substantial adaptation. She finished the year 23rd in the driver’s standings, with an average start of 26.7 and an average finish of 25.4.
Notable Races and Milestones
Breidinger’s most significant milestones include her 2016 USAC Western US Asphalt Midget Series championship, which made her the winningest female driver in any USAC asphalt division at the time. Her 2021 ARCA debut marked a historic moment as the first Arab-American woman to race in any national touring NASCAR series. In 2023, she made her NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series debut for Tricon Garage at the Heart of America 200, finishing fifteenth.
Toni Breidinger Career Wins
Toni Breidinger’s competitive resume features wins in open-wheel racing, highlighted by her 2016 USAC Western US Asphalt Midget Series championship. While her stock car career in ARCA produced strong results including four top-fives and 27 top-tens across four seasons, her move to the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series represented a new and challenging chapter in her professional career.
ARCA Menards Series Highlights
Across four ARCA seasons from 2021 to 2024, Breidinger amassed four top-fives and 27 top-tens while competing primarily with Venturini Motorsports. Her best ARCA result came at Kansas Speedway in 2023, where she finished third. In 2024, she concluded her ARCA career with a strong fourth-place finish in the series standings, recording eleven top-ten finishes in a 20-race season.
Other Wins and Performances
Breidinger’s early career featured success in the USAC Western US Asphalt Midget Series, where she won the 2016 championship after finishing runner-up in both 2014 and 2015. In 2023, she competed full-time in the inaugural Toyota North America GR Cup series to gain additional road course experience, complementing her oval racing program.
Toni Breidinger Family
Family Background and Racing Lineage
Toni Breidinger comes from a close-knit family that played a central role in launching her racing career. Her father, Mark Breidinger, introduced her and her twin sister Annie to motorsports by taking them to a go-kart school after seeing a newspaper advertisement. Her mother, Melinda Breidinger, is of Lebanese heritage, while her father is of German descent, giving Toni her distinctive Arab-American background. Her parents supported her early racing efforts, with her father purchasing two go-karts so that both sisters could compete.
Personal Life
Outside of racing, Breidinger pursues a modeling career and is signed with IMG Models. She has appeared in publications including Marie Claire Arabia, Glamour, Flaunt, Shape, and GQ, and in 2025 she became the first NASCAR driver to model for the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. She has been open about her past struggles with body confidence and serves as an endorser of the Women’s Sports Foundation. Her brand partnerships include Raising Cane’s, Celsius, Sunoco, Coach, Dave and Buster’s, and 818 Tequila.
2025 Season Performance
Toni Breidinger’s 2025 season marked her first full-time campaign in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series with Tricon Garage, driving the No. 5 Toyota Tundra TRD Pro. As a rookie in the series, she faced a steep learning curve transitioning from ARCA cars to the heavier and more powerful trucks. Through the first 15 races of the season, she recorded two top-20 finishes, with a best result of 18th at Rockingham, and finished all but two of those races.
Her final ten races proved more difficult, as she failed to finish in four of them and did not finish better than 24th in any of those events. A notable moment came at Watkins Glen, where she was involved in a fiery incident caused by an engine failure. During the same weekend, she experienced a personal setback when several of her belongings were stolen after a break-in, though the items were later recovered approximately a month later.
Breidinger concluded her rookie Truck Series season ranked 23rd in the driver’s standings, with an average start of 26.7 and an average finish of 25.4. Despite the statistical challenges, her persistence throughout the season reflected her growth as a driver and her continued presence as a trailblazer for diversity in NASCAR. Her progression from go-karts to midgets to ARCA and now to the Truck Series underscores a long-term commitment to climbing the NASCAR ladder.