With Hailie Deegan leaving NASCAR for good after her disastrous Xfinity Series stint, NASCAR was left without a prominent female driver. Soon, the national series found a new star driver climbing the ranks who could potentially fill the space left by Deegan. Toni Briedinger announced her full-time debut with Tricon Garage after a part-time stint in the Truck Series and a couple of ARCA Series runs. Like Deegan, Briedinger has a massive following on social media and with ties to the premier Toyota team, she was going to be the center of attention.

After a streak of top 30 finishes, the driver of the No. 5 Toyota Tundra truck had a good opportunity for a solid finish at Bristol Motor Speedway on Friday. Holding onto the lead lap, she was heading towards a strong finish for the day, but just when things were looking good for Breidinger, she was involved in a wreck.  The incident happened on Lap 160 when Stewer Frisen got loose and knocked the No. 5 truck into the wall.

Breidinger was running inside of the top 20 in the final stage, but the contact with the wall estimated the rear end of her race truck. She did manage to finish the race in 25th spot, but it was a bummer as she could’ve aimed for a top 15 finish, which would have brought out her best finish of the 2025 season.

Of course, she must have been bitterly disappointed to finish as low as she did in Bristol. However, the 25-year-old is not about to let it get her spirits down at all. “Yeah, I mean just keep improving. I feel like I’ve gotten a little bit better every race; just execution hasn’t been there. Results haven’t been there. Gonna start putting everything together.” When asked about the crash where Frisen got loose, she replied, “Yeah the 52 got loose and that sucks,” She wasn’t pointing fingers at her rivals rather understanding that the crash was the part of the race.

The best finish she had had so far in her maiden run came at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, where she finished in the 21st spot. For a rookie driver, she has done a good enough job of finishing the race, even when the odds are stacked against her. After five races, she finds herself 24th in the points standings, and with consistent top 20 and top 10 runs, she can further improve on her performances.

Meanwhile, former Xfinity Series driver Chandler Smith was able to hold off a late charge by Kyle Larson to bag his first win of 2025.

While all that was happening, Smith held off Larson to win

With 25 laps to go in the race, Corey Heim and Chandler Smith were the ones fighting for the lead after passing Rajah Caruth, but a late race caution made things tricky for the leading pack. As the race went back green, Smith was the one who took the charge, and Kyle Larson was on a hot pursuit to make a race-winning pass. But, despite Larson’s efforts, the former JGR driver was able to defend his lead for the last seven laps and parked the No. 38 truck in the victory lane.

In the end, all that separated the two drivers was 0.934 seconds at the finish line. With the triumph, Chandler Smith also netted $50,000 in the Triple Truck Challenge bonus. The bonus was largely because he was the highest-placed Truck Series regular. It is also worth mentioning that Smith battled past several obstacles, including a pit road speeding penalty.

“I‘m more excited for the team than I am for myself. This group came together—we hired my crew chief (Jon Leonard) two weeks before Daytona … My life‘s been really, really crazy recently, and there were a lot of unknowns about my future going into the season, and we kind of had our backs against the wall putting this group together like I said. But holy (crap), I wouldn‘t want any different of a group than I had behind me.” Smith said after the win.

Unable to retain his ride in the Xfinity Series, Smith’s win at Bristol was a huge step in his massive comeback story. With two top 5s and ending all the six races with a minimum of top 10 finish, he is amongst the front runners to compete for the championship this season.