As a teenager looking to transition from go-karts to professional stock cars, Toni Breidinger was delighted when she landed a test with Toyota. She even impressed those who came to watch. But just as she was taking off her helmet and hoping for opportunities to climb up the ladder to land at her table, a cold, hard truth hit her, one that forever shaped the way she, as a female driver, saw the world of racing.
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Breidinger needed a couple of million dollars in sponsorship money to cover the team’s operational costs. It is something every driver, male or female, needs to make it to NASCAR: money. But for female drivers, finding that backing can be even more difficult because of the bias they face, Breidinger revealed on an earlier episode of The Burnouts podcast.
“Every 100 dollars in sponsorship a guy gets, a girl gets like one dollar,” said Toni Breidinger.
She revealed that the brands willing to work with female athletes often do so simply to be friendly. But when it comes to money, they do not cough up nearly as much as they would for similarly talented male athletes.
“I’ve worked with a lot of different people in the sport and not everybody believes in you,” Breidinger added. “Some people don’t give you the same opportunity because they’re like, ‘Oh, she’s just a girl, whatever; just give her whatever equipment; she’s not gonna win,’ so they don’t give you that fair shot. So for me now being with Toyota, like I’m around people that treat me like a driver just like everyone else.”
The same path to the top of the stock racing ladder automatically gets more difficult for female drivers because of money. And Breidinger knows that too well.
After her first-ever Toyota test, Breidinger, who did not come from a particularly wealthy background, moved to North Carolina, a hub for racing. She sent hundreds of emails to companies, pitching herself in the hope of securing funding while working minimum-wage jobs. Yet, she barely heard back, forcing her to turn to a career that has now become just as important to her as NASCAR.
Breidinger decided to turn to modelling, something that finally got the attention of companies, while also building her own brand on social media, something sponsors love in this day and age. Raising Cane’s, a fast-food company became one of her earliest and most loyal partners.
Over the next few years, Breidinger’s rising popularity helped her land deals with iconic brands like Coach, Victoria’s Secret, and SKIMS.
In 2023, she made her Truck Series debut at Kansas, backed by Victoria’s Secret, finishing 15th and becoming an inspiration for women in motorsports across the country. In 2025, she became a full-time driver for TRICON Garage, driving the No. 5 Toyota, a major milestone in her career. But at the same time, she admitted that she could not ignore the disparity, knowing that her male teammates were being paid more by shared sponsors.
Her spot in the garage was never secure. In 2026, TRICON parted ways with her, and Breidinger moved to Rackley W.A.R. on a part-time schedule. Even at 27, funding remains crucial to keeping her NASCAR dream alive. That is why she continues to put a strong emphasis on her modeling and influencer career, despite the criticism she receives for it.
Racing fans have often argued that her numerous brand deals are a distraction and contribute to her underwhelming on-track performances. That may be a factor, but those deals are also essential to keeping her career in NASCAR alive.
“When people say that doing brand deals affects my performance, I’m like, ‘No, you know what affects my performance? Not being able to race because I can’t afford it,’” she said on Samantha Busch’s podcast.
Breidinger is hardly alone. In a sport dominated by men, other female drivers have also spoken about the difficulty of securing sponsorship money. Hailie Deegan once revealed that it could take up to $6 million to move up to the O’Reilly Series, joking that she would need to find that kind of money “falling off a tree.”
Natalie Decker is another driver who has faced criticism for focusing on her modeling career. But like Breidinger, she has argued that it is essential to keeping her racing career alive.
“Securing sponsorship remains by far the hardest part about the sport, harder than driving, harder than qualifying. Talent gets you noticed, but money keeps you racing. I’ve turned down full seasons because the budget wasn’t there,” she said in an earlier interview.
For Breidinger, the focus for now is on finishing a difficult 2026 season before evaluating her options for next year.
In the four races she has run so far this season, she finished 18th at Texas, 26th at Dover, 25th at Indianapolis, and 26th at Kansas in last Saturday’s rain-delayed race.
At New Hampshire, Breidinger was initially set to pilot the No. 27 Chevrolet but was replaced by her full-time teammate Dawson Sutton. Sutton’s No. 26 Chevrolet suffered a mechanical failure that prevented him from setting a qualifying time. Rackley then switched the two drivers, putting Sutton in the No. 27 and Breidinger in the No. 26.
However, Breidinger was left out of the race despite setting a qualifying time fast enough to make the grid. Painful, because every chance to get back behind the wheel matters for Breidinger.
She needs the brand deals to keep racing, even as those same deals continue to draw criticism from fans. For now, though, the goal is simple: find the backing, get back in the truck, and keep the NASCAR dream alive.