Who is Toni Breidinger? All you need to know about the rising NASCAR star

Making her debut in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series this weekend, part-time ARCA Menards Series driver Toni Breidinger is setting the stock car racing world on fire.

The 23-year-old driver from Hillsborough, California, has had one of the most bizarre introductions to NASCAR for any driver in history, and we mean that in the best way possible.

Starting out as just a young 9-year-old girl whose dad took her go-carting, Toni Breidinger took to driving competitively on four wheels very seriously since her introduction. The Arab-American driver recently touched upon what got her interested in racing in an interview with Fox New Digital, where she said:

"I started racing when I was in go-carts at 9 years old and purely just for fun. But I took it really seriously at a young age and told him (Breidinger's father) 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."

Along with being the only female driver for Saturday's Heart of America 200 at Kansas Speedway, she also holds the bragging rights for being the only Victoria's Secret model on the track.

Introducing the lingerie giant to the world of motorsports, the 23-year-old will be seen behind the wheel of the #1 Toyota Tundra TRD fielded by TRICON Garage this weekend.

Toni Breidinger's future in the sport can be shaped in whichever form she wants, as she has a grip on many different angles in the sport, along with a hosts of firsts. Who knows, we might be seeing the makings of the next Danica Patrick right in front of our eyes.

Toni Breidinger elaborates on Victoria's Secret sponsoring her debut in NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series

Ahead of her first appearance in the junior-most nationwide series of the sport, Toni Breidinger touched upon another fact. It is of her two childhood dreams dovetailing on track this weekend.

She wanted to be a model for lingerie giant Victoria's Secret since her childhood and now, as both her modelling and racing career meet, she is feeling 'surreal'.

She said:

"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. So, the fact that they both happened, like two worlds colliding, is like so surreal. It’s pretty crazy."

The Heart of America 200 goes live this Saturday at 8:00 pm ET on FOX Sports (FS1).