NASCAR's next female star opens up on 'challenging' 2025 season

NASCAR Truck Series rookie Toni Breidinger has opened up on her 'challenging' first year as a full-time driver in the series.

The spotlight on 26-year-old Breidinger is greater than for most other rookies in the series (with the possible exception of Frankie Muniz) due to her status as one of the few female drivers in the sport.

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That spotlight is only intensified by her off-track pursuits, as a model with more than three million Instagram followers watching her every move.

Breidinger admitted on the Spake Up Podcast that she feels a lot of pressure on her shoulders, sitting 22nd in the points standings behind every full-time driver but Muniz.

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Breidinger: Hard to trust the process

"I definitely feel a lot of weight on my shoulders. Yeah, it's tough. I mean, the sport is hard. I feel like when things go wrong, everyone's kind of pointing at you, looking at you, and I'm also very self-aware. I tend to be like, 'Okay, I understand if this was my fault'.

"But also, you think I tend to blame myself; even if I was in a wreck, I'm like, ‘Well, if I was, I had in this position, I would have been wrecked'. So I do feel like I am very hard on myself."

She continued: "I understand that it's a very frustrating sport. A lot of people ask me to say, like, ‘Oh, how's it going, the transition from ARCA to trucks?’ And, I'm like, ‘It's challenging, it's hard, it's a learning curve'.

“And, you know, I would say, ‘Trust the process,’ but in terms of process, it's hard to trust, so you just have to have that kind of fight, and that fire in you to keep going."

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