Moving up the racing ranks is no small feat, but Toni Breidinger is ready for the challenges that the Craftsman Truck Series will present. After all, she's already experienced the hornet's nest of racing in the middle of the pack.
Videos by FanBuzz
Breidinger made four Truck Series starts over the last two seasons while gaining experience with Tricon Garage, the team she joins full-time in 2025. She took on intermediate tracks and a superspeedway while understanding how the trucks differ from the stock cars in the ARCA Menards Series.
This was an eye-opening experience, and Breidinger feels that it prepared her for what she will face as a rookie next season as she takes on a new level of competition.
"I've had a pretty good comparison just being able to race Kansas, doing the double races in one day with ARCA and the Truck Series," Breidinger said in response to a question from FanBuzz. "Then also doing that with Daytona, I really got that side-by-side comparison.
"The Truck Series is definitely a lot more aggressive, a lot more competition there. It's definitely going to be a learning curve, but I think I at least kind of got my footing."
As Breidinger explained, she was glad she spent multiple seasons competing in the ARCA Menards Series. She was able to better gain an understanding of things that are not necessarily present in every racing series.
This includes dirty air and clean air, challenges that numerous other drivers have had to face while adapting to stock cars. The list of drivers includes Jesse Love, who won 10 races and the ARCA championship in 2023. Love had to learn about dirty air from Jeff Gordon early in his career before delivering a dominant season.
Along with learning about the cars' aerodynamics, Breidinger was also able to better understand restarts and how to maximize each one to gain track position. This will be key in 2025 and beyond considering that the Truck Series races often feature numerous restarts due to the number of cautions.
One thing that the ARCA races could not do for Breidinger is teach her how to race against the biggest names in NASCAR.
Yes, drivers such as Brandon Jones and Tanner Gray made sporadic starts in ARCA over the last few seasons, but this was not the same as trying to hold off Kyle Busch, Ben Rhodes, Matt Crafton, and Johnny Sauter on a long, green-flag run or a frantic restart.
Breidinger had this experience in her first-ever Truck Series start at Kansas. She had to face off with these champions while avoiding mistakes and ruining their race. She passed the test and finished 15th.
She will continue to race the majority of these big names next season as she takes on the full-season schedule. This time, she will have just as much at stake as they do, which will only create more challenges as she tries to strike a balance behind the wheel.
"What I'm doing is so cool, and I always want to be very present in that and very appreciative," Breidinger said about racing these champions. "But I obviously want to go out there and win.
"So I think it's like a fine line of looking up to people that you race with but also not admiring them to the extent that you're not gonna race them hard."
Breidinger will have to strike this balance as she competes next season and grows as a racer. This will help her maximize her season as she battles for points.
She will have 25 opportunities to achieve this while taking on the expanded Truck Series schedule, one featuring numerous venues where she has competed in the past.
