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NASCAR sensation Toni Breidinger recently discussed how her popularity on social media platforms is helping her career in the stock car racing series.
Breidinger, a full-time ARCA Menards Series driver, is the most popular NASCAR driver on social media and actively posts on-track pictures. She has amassed over 2.4 million followers on Instagram and 2.3 million followers on TikTok. Her social media presence puts her in a different league compared to the Cup Series drivers.
In a recent conversation with former NASCAR driver Kenny Wallace, Toni Breidinger explained that she gets trolled for her active social media presence. However, she remains unfazed by the comments, emphasizing the significance of social media in attracting potential sponsors.
"I do feel like a lot of people are like 'Oh, pay less attention to social media and focus more on racing.' But it's like I can't go racing unless I have sponsors behind me. And exactly they look at social media," Breidinger told Wallace. [2:40]
The 24-year-old, who is also a Victoria's Secret model, added that she tries to strike a balance between her efforts on social media and racing.
"I mean there is definitely a fine balance to it, but I'm not gonna be at the race track without my partners and they are not going to be with me without my social media. They all kind of go hand in hand but I do feel like, outside looking in, some people still don't always understand that whole aspect of it all," she added.
Toni Breidinger is currently sponsored by the American fast-food chain Raising Cane's. The fast-food chain recently rolled out a nationwide in-store activation for their Chicken Fingers featuring the NASCAR driver.
Toni Breidinger recalls how she got into racing
Breidinger was born in Hillsborough, California, and started racing go-karts at the age of nine with her twin sister, Annie, at the Sonoma Raceway. She reminisced about how her father initially took them to the track for quality family time but she immediately caught the racing bug.
"Probably the day that I tried a go-kart was the day that I started liking racing. I don't even think I knew what NASCAR was before I even hopped into a go-kart. It really just opened a whole new world for me," she told Wallace. [7:18]
Toni Breidinger said that she was competitive from the get-go and expressed her desire to become a racing driver, although her father initially believed it was just a phase.
"For a long time it was just my dad, my sister and myself going to the go-kart track every weekend, just kind of spending quality time together. I was very competitive right away, and I told my dad I want to be a racecar driver but I think... he probably figured it was just gonna be a little phase."
From go-karts, Toni Breidinger has made her way to the NASCAR Truck Series, where she has four starts under her belt and a 15th-place best finish.
