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Toni Breidinger is a female driver in a male-dominated sport. She does not take that lightly.
We spoke with the 25-year-old Truck Series phenom about the gender disparity in her sport and her approach to social media. It has changed a lot over the last 12 months.
Breidinger, a rookie on the NASCAR circuit, does not look like her competition. Not only is she a woman, she is also the first Arab-American driver to get behind the wheel. That side of who she is often gets overlooked because of the much louder conversation surrounding her gender but it is equally as important. It is a large part of her identity!
“My mom was born in Lebanon, and I’ve grown up with that culture very much in me,” Breidinger said. “We focus a lot on family, integrity and kindness so I’ve always been very proud of that side of who I am. I feel like I really embraced that more— embraced that side of me more as I got older. And my mom cooks really great Lebanese food!”
As you could imagine, there are challenges to being different. People do not give Breidinger the same respect they give to other drivers even though she is more popular.
She was unfortunately forced to accept that reality early on in her career, even on the ARCA and amateur levels. It’s not going to change.
“People sometimes don’t see me as a driver because I look different than everybody else,” Breidinger said.” People love to say ‘you don’t look like a driver.’ That’s fine. None of us look like drivers until we’re in a race suit. There’s a common theme in the garage area and I am a little bit different to that. I don’t really have a choice but to embrace it. Being different is a good thing!”
Breidinger told me she is treated differently than other drivers because she is female. People love to try to discredit her view on the racing world but there is no way to ignore reality.
“Sometimes I feel like I’m pretty tunnel visioned to where I feel like I don’t really pay attention to what other people think quite as much,” she said. “But there are certain moments where I’m like, ‘Yeah, they’re treating me this way.’ I have teammates so I can literally compare, ‘Okay, well this person just treated my teammate this way and they treated me a different way.’ There are obvious comparisons to be made. And it’s funny because when I’ve brought that up in the past, people say, ‘Oh, you’re being dramatic.’ I’m like ‘no, we literally get treated different because we’re girls.’ Like that’s just the way of life!”
The good thing is that She does not necessarily take the discrepancy in treatment as a slight. Breidinger can sense when it is intentional or subconscious.
“People do it without even realizing,” she said. “I mean, people make comments all the time and it’s not necessarily to be mean on purpose. It’s just the double standard that’s been around, I guess.”
(You can read more about the NASCAR rivalries and gender disparity in our full conversation with Toni Breidinger. Tea was spilled!)
Toni Breidinger blocks out the noise.
Even beyond the track, Breidinger is subject to more conversation on social media than most other drivers because of her massive following. Although the comments are both positive and negative, they are often more negative than positive— and increasingly so.
Nobody else on the NASCAR Truck Series has more than a few hundred thousand followers on any platform on social media. Most of the drivers have just a few thousand or tens of thousands. Breidinger has 2.5 million followers on Instagram and 2.3 million on TikTok.
It’s not even close. That presents a challenge when the haters start hating. Breidinger has to focus only on the opinions from the people she trusts.
“If they’re not my inner circle, it’s like, does their opinion really matter? No, it doesn’t,” she said.
Her approach to social media was also forced to change upon promotion to the Truck Series. This last year has been especially crazy and the negativity increased exponentially.
“I really have stayed off of social media this year,” Breidinger said. “I’ve seen the mean comments escalate a little bit so I’ve mostly stopped reading comments, which is unfortunate because I know I miss some people that are actually true fans of myself and I do like to read those comments.”
Breidinger understands the difference between social media and reality. Others don’t.
“People see just a little bit of your life on social media and it’s barely real,” she said. “And [the haters] don’t take it with a grain of salt. They see you at one event and they’re like, ‘Oh, she’s doing this all the time.’ No, it was literally a few hours on one day. So people don’t fully know you on social media and it’s not a full picture of who you are.”
Although she does not typically talk with other female athletes like Olivia Dunne about their comment sections, Toni Breidinger feels less alone when she sees how they are treated. They all wish it were different but it is the unfortunate reality for women in sports. And the people who do speak their mind are not worth the time or energy.
“If you click on their profiles, it’s like, yeah, well, you really shouldn’t care about what they think,” Breidinger said. “We (female athletes) all go through it and it’s the people that don’t truly know us and don’t follow our journeys who are the worst to us. They’re just writing a comment to write it. So you really just have to look at it in that perspective.”
Breidinger does not want the outside cynics to discourage other young kids from chasing their dreams. Especially young girls. People try to put her in a box or label her as something she is not, but they don’t get to define her.
“Don’t be afraid to be the first you,” she said. “I am doing something a little bit different in the sport and sometimes I look around and wonder if I am being too different out there. But then I’m like, ‘No. Who cares? Pave your own path.’ Just because nobody’s done it before doesn’t mean you can’t.”
Do you hear that, haters? Toni Breidinger can’t hear you! You can try to tear her down. You can try to hurt her feelings. She isn’t listening. She is going to come right back even stronger and even louder. There is no stopping the grind.