Rising racing star Toni Breidinger set to make NASCAR history as she lives out two childhood dreams

Toni Breidinger has already been one of the most dominant female competitors on the racetrack.

She picked up more than a dozen victories in the U.S. Auto Club Western Midget series, had one top 10 finish in the ARCA Menards Series East in four starts and nine top 10 finishes in 35 races on the main ARCA Menards Series circuit and became a Victoria’s Secret model in September 2022.

All before her 24th birthday. And she’s not done yet.

On Saturday, Breidinger will be racing in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series at Kansas Speedway for the first time and make history as the first Arab American woman to compete on the trucks circuit. She will race for TRICON Garage and drive the No. 1 Victoria’s Secret Toyota Tundra TRD Pro.

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"I feel like it’s very important to have representation in the sport," Breidinger told Fox News Digital in a recent interview. "To me, it’s really exciting to hopefully be paving the path for the younger girls. 

"I feel excited but, at the same time, I wish I wasn’t the first because I think NASCAR has been around for so long. So, I feel like every time some of us girls are breaking these barriers, all of this stuff I feel like they should have broken a long time ago, it’s kind of like a mixed emotion type of feeling. But I’m really proud to be able to represent the sport."

Breidinger, who grew up near San Francisco, wasn’t exactly on the path to racing when she was younger. She was just having fun.

"I started racing when I was in go-carts at 9 years old and purely just for fun," she told Fox News Digital. "My dad was basically driving down the highway to work and saw a sign for go-cart lessons, and he took me and my twin sister, Annie, there. And we did a go-cart class. 

"We both fell in love with it, and then he got us one go-cart to share. And just every weekend we’d go up for fun. It was kind of more of a way for my dad to bond with us and have like a father-daughter activity than anything.

"But I took it really seriously at a young age and told him that I wanna be a race car driver. And he definitely thought it was just going to be a phase. But I stuck with it, and it’s been a long 14-year journey. But here I am."

Aside from all the wins and top finishes at the different levels of the sport, one of her biggest accomplishments was becoming a Victoria’s Secret model. In September 2022, she announced she was going to become a part of that lingerie family.

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"little me is crying. growing up I struggled a lot with body confidence. this past year I focused on my mental and physical health over appearance. I’m honored to be part of @victoriassecret family. Thank you for letting me feel confident in my own skin!" she wrote at the time.

Breidinger told Fox News Digital she realized her dream, and now she gets to ride in a truck that’s sponsored by the company.

"It’s so crazy. It’s funny because I joke that I manifested it when I was little because I had this journal. And I used to write that I wanna be a race car driver. And I also wrote I want to be a Victoria’s Secret model," she said. "So, the fact that they both happened, like two worlds colliding, is like so surreal. It’s pretty crazy.

"I’m really proud to be with the brand. It’s really incredible that they’re supporting me in such a big and major moment in my career. It’s surreal. It’s like crazy. I start smiling real big when I start thinking about it."

To be one of the few women in the truck series, Breidinger says, is a proud moment for her.

"I’m really proud about it and especially now with Victoria’s Secret on the truck for this. I’m just proud to stand alongside a brand that really champions women because I feel like, for me, I really believe so much in representation. And I think of so much of females racing in the sport," she said. 

"When I was growing up and I saw female race car drivers, that inspired me so much. So, I can imagine that’s kind of the same for younger girls.

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"So, it is really important to me, and I kind of put pressure on myself to do well, to show people like, ‘Hey, we are capable of doing this’ and also for young girls. I add that extra pressure on myself because I really want to be a great representation for us females. But at the same time, I don’t really set myself apart from the other drivers. I see myself as everyone else, so it’s kind of like two parts to it."

Breidinger added that getting to the highest level of stock car racing, the NASCAR Cup Series, is in her "five-year plan." She said she has one more truck race already lined up after Kansas.

Breidinger will do double duty on Saturday. She will drive in the ARCA Menards Series race, the Dawn 150, in the afternoon and then gear up for the truck race, the Heart of America 200, at night. The ARCA race is set for 2 p.m. ET, and the truck race is scheduled for 8 p.m. ET. Both races can be seen on FS1.

Trump’s debate strategy: Skip the early ones and bash the media

The first Republican presidential debate is at least three months away, but Donald Trump is already stirring the pot.

He first declared last week on Truth Social that he’s inclined to skip one or both of the first two debates, and he blamed media hostility:

"When you’re leading by seemingly insurmountable numbers, and you have hostile Networks with angry, TRUMP & MAGA hating anchors asking the ‘questions,’ why subject yourself to being libeled and abused?"

That seemed like a pretty forceful statement that he’s going to blow off the early debates – the first one on Fox News, set for August – despite the schedule set by the RNC.

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The former president soon offered a different explanation during a New Hampshire swing: "I have people at one half of 1%, one quarter of 1%, 1%, 3%, 2%, 4%, 7%. And Desanctis (sic) is very low and crashing… We're at 60 and 70%. Why would you do that?"

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This drew some modest coverage. I found his stance so striking that I devoted a segment to it on last Sunday’s "Media Buzz."

Then the New York Times did additional reporting for a Tuesday piece, and suddenly the story was everywhere: CNN, NBC, Washington Post, the Hill.

Before anyone starts hyperventilating, candidates in both parties play this game.

Does anyone really expect President Biden to debate Marianne Williamson and Robert Kennedy Jr.? RFK, the anti-vax advocate, garnered 19% in a recent poll, but he’s got the last name and provides a safe harbor for the anti-Biden vote. I can’t imagine the President of the United States debating them because he’s a lock for the nomination.

Last fall, Democrat Katie Hobbs won the Arizona governorship in part by refusing to debate Kari Lake, the Republican with a quarter-century of TV experience. Hobbs took flak, even after arguing she didn’t want to give a platform to Lake’s election denialism, but probably would have lost the tight race had she debated. 

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Is it better for democracy when candidates face off? Of course it is. But you will not be shocked to hear that candidates are primarily concerned with winning. 

In the Times story, Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan quote five unnamed sources in touch with Trump as reporting he said "I’m up by too many points," and "if he does a debate this early with candidates who are polling in the single digits, there’s no upside for him."

And then there’s what the piece describes as "revenge."

Trump doesn’t want to do the second debate, at the Reagan Presidential Library, because the chairman of its board of trustees is Fred Ryan, who is also the publisher of the Washington Post, a paper for which the former president does not have warm feelings.

As for the Fox debate, Trump has made no secret of his frustration with the network ever since it projected Biden the winner in Arizona, and the news division’s refusal to accept his unfounded election-fraud allegations. The Times says Trump doesn’t want to be questioned by chief political anchor Bret Baier – one of the fairest journalists I know and someone who has interviewed him in the past.

The ex-president, by the way, agreed to do a town hall next week with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, which could be seen as a swipe at Fox. Trump hasn’t been on the network he bashed as "fake news" for nearly seven years, but that was then and this is now.

Trump’s absence from the early debates would obviously shrink the audience. That happened when he blew off a Fox debate in 2016, having been angry at Megyn Kelly’s question about his derogatory comments toward women in a debate the previous year. 

Unless Ron DeSantis, his closest competitor, manages to pull within striking distance, Trump may well carry out his threat. Or he may just be creating yet another media narrative to build interest in his return to the debate stage.