Sponsorships in NASCAR are no joke. Every driver needs them, and in the current economic space of the sport, an inability to draw sponsors can lead to losing a seat! Just look at Chandler Smith. The former Xfinity Series driver for Joe Gibbs Racing lost his seat at the team after 2024 following a lack of financial backing, leading him to a seat for Front Row Motorsports in the Truck Series for 2025. Meanwhile, the Truck Series sees its biggest sponsorship puller rake in yet another major sponsor!

Toni Breidinger is a trailblazer in NASCAR. Female full-time drivers are a rarity in the sport, with Danica Patrick being the last full-time Cup Series driver in 2017. Currently, the only NASCAR Series that employs a full-time female driver is the Truck Series, with TRICON Garage housing Toni Breidinger in their #5 truck as the first Arab American woman to compete in NASCAR. However, besides being an ARCA superstar, Toni’s value lies in her ability to rope in high-quality sponsors, and their latest deal with Kendall Jenner’s brand just highlights her stardom.

Kendall Jenner and Toni Breidinger are breaking barriers together

Toni Breidinger will be partnering with 818 Tequila as her primary sponsor for the #5 Truck in 2025! The Kendall Jenner co-owned brand will take over the Nashville race on May 30 and host an exclusive VIP experience and after-party at the event. What’s more? 818 branding will be featured on Breidinger’s car and racing gear throughout the 2025 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series season.

“Alcohol is a ground game — it’s all about the market — and NASCAR is really prevalent in a lot of these markets that we’re super-focused on right now,” said CMO of 818 Spirits, Kathleen Braine. “Also, because we’re empowering a female driver in NASCAR, it’s really aligned to what Kendall has experienced as a female founder in the alcohol space. There’s a lot of alignment there.” 

Braine draws parallels to Kendall Jenner’s experience as a female in a male-dominated space as an alcohol brand owner to Toni Breidinger‘s in NASCAR. Now, the two look to stand out by collaborating and increasing their visibility in NASCAR’s third-tier series. However, besides their shared struggle, Breidinger’s fan following is reason enough to choose her for this deal.

The racer and fashion model has over 5 million followers on Instagram and has secured lucrative brand deals with companies such as Victoria’s Secret, Celsius, Gatorade, and many more. In 2025, Breidinger made her debut in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit edition, marking her presence as one of the premier fashion model cum racecar drivers, and believe it or not, that’s exactly how Toyota intended her deal to be!

While her racing exploits include experience from 65 ARCA starts, and an impressive run in 2024, accruing 11 top-10 finishes. She also made history with a 15th-place Truck debut at Kansas in 2023. However, after signing her deal with Toyota, questions emerged whether the deal was for her prowess as a driver or her ability to attract sponsors, and it turns out, the latter might have played a bigger role. Paul Dosehal, group manager of Toyota Motor North America, said, as per motorcycle sports, that Breidinger is an “influencer from a driver standpoint.” Her deal with Toyota was also not signed via their development program, which is what led to the questions in the first place.

However, despite all of this, Breidinger has had a timid yet positive start to her 2025 Truck Series campaign with TRICON Garage.

Trending

1

Kyle Busch’s Incriminating Words Echo Amidst Reignited ‘Forgery’ Allegations

2

Denny Hamlin Appeals to Joe Gibbs for a Move Away From the Cup Series Amid Declining Quality

3

Richard “The King” Petty Scrutinizes NASCAR’s “Nicky-Picky” Antics Against the Unpopular Joey Logano

4

NASCAR Community Left Enraged After Executive Elton Sawyer Makes Provocative Claims Post Talladega

5

Rick Hendrick’s Insider Gives a List of Demands as Mind-Numbing Talladega Exposes NASCAR

Breidinger’s 2025 season so far

The TRICON Garage driver has not had the best of starts, performance-wise, to the 2025 campaign. Her first ride at Daytona ended in a crash after putting together what seemed like a top-20 run. Until her 18th-place finish in the Truck race at Rockingham, Breidinger had yet to record a top-20 finish. Speaking after her 25th place finish at Bristol before Rockingham, Toni spoke on her expectations for the season ahead, “Yeah, I mean just keep improving. I feel like I’ve gotten a little bit better every race; just execution hasn’t been there. Results haven’t been there. Gonna start putting everything together.”

Rockingham was a reflection of that improvement, and as a rookie, she isn’t doing that bad after all. With the constant backing of sponsorship, all Breidinger has to focus on his her racecraft, and with time, she is bound to improve as a driver. Although we have seen situations as recently as 2024 where female drivers were driven out of the sport due to a lack of performance.

Hailie Deegan was relieved of her duties in the Xfinity Series in the middle of 2024 with AM Racing after a string of poor performances. Deegan didn’t just leave the Series, but NASCAR  as a whole, as she shifted to the Indy NXT series to compete full-time and explore was new avenue. While Breidinger will certainly be given more time than most, we will have to wait and see if her sponsorship pull can usurp lackluster race results in the future.