Hailie Deegan turned her motorsports career around when she first transitioned from off-road and dirt tracks to stock car racing. She began her career in NASCAR in 2018 in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series West. At this time, she became the first female driver to win races in the West Series. Similar to Deegan, Toni Breidinger, one of the few dominant females in motorsports, is driving with Toyota, but not in the way you think.

What sets Toni Breidinger apart is that she was given the opportunity to drive with Toyota, thanks to her online presence promoting women in motorsports. Breidinger, instead of being contracted through the developmental program, is contracted through the marketing department. The social media influencer has more than 2.5 million followers on Instagram and a similar number of followers on TikTok. Like Deegan, Breidinger revealed the reality check she got about what it truly takes to survive in NASCAR today.

Breidinger’s turnaround

Breidinger was invited onto The Burnouts, with Pheobe and Sophia, and it was during this interview that she shed light on how her contract came to be. She explained how when she got the opportunity to test one of Toyota’s cars, they had loved her. The catch was that if she wanted to drive for them, she needed millions.

“It was kind of like a reality check. I was like, you can be an amazing driver, but like without partners, you’re not gonna go anywhere,” the driver explained.

From that moment, she began to make a plan. She would move to North Carolina, the hub for everything NASCAR, and try to make connections from there. To make money, she began doing Instacart deliveries during the day and would send out cold emails to create more connections.

Her online success began when she started to make videos of her personal experiences in motorsports, and she is one of the few women to do so.

“I started creating videos around motorsports and just my experience in the space, and they started blowing up, and I started getting brand deals from that,” Breidinger said.

Soon thereafter, Breidinger gained a following on just about every social media platform available and gained the opportunity to drive for Toyota as the first Arab-American woman to compete in a NASCAR national series.

“So that was kind of my pivotal moment, was social media,” Breidinger said.

This is exactly what Hailie Deegan went through in her career trajectory. Her presence on social media was the major anchor that kept her career steady.

“I probably wouldn’t be in the ride I’m in right now, being able to race in the truck series full-time, if it wasn’t for me doing social media,” Deegan said. “Because it is very hard to sell sponsorship on a car when you can’t guarantee TV time. It’s very hard to guarantee that.”

Deegan further explained how sponsors like to see numbers and other marketing perks like ensuring their logos are on her car. “I am able to give them that with social media.”

So like Hailie Deegan, who had to rethink her career path after manufacturer and team expectations changed, Breidinger too realized she needed to build her own value outside the race car. But what’s next for her?

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What to expect next from Breidinger

The 2026 NASCAR Truck Series season will be a very important one for Toni Breidinger. It is currently unclear where she will be racing, either at TRICON Garage or a return to Kaulig Racing. However, in order to secure her future in NASCAR, the Toyota driver certainly needs to perform at a high level.

Throughout the 2025 season, the social media star struggled with distant gaps to her teammates, Corey Heim, Tanner Gray, and Gio Ruggiero. She needs to find more consistency in pace. She has proven she can succeed at select tracks, but she will need to finish higher than 23rd in the points standings to keep her place in NASCAR.

While that’s the update for Breidinger, let’s look at Deegan’s situation.

Hailie Deegan: Where is she?

After her abrupt exit from AM Racing in 2024, the female driver has left the door open for a return to NASCAR in 2026. Throughout her racing career, she has shown versatility across different racing domains. from starting in go-karts, moving to stock car racing, with performances in the NASCAR Truck Series and even a time in the NASCAR Xfinity Series.

Financial reasons played a part in her departure to a different racing format. It’s known that NASCAR sponsorships are a considerable hurdle. Last year, in 2025, the hope for her move to Indy NXT was that the financial dynamics would be more favorable for her. When she moved to Indy NXT, the driver had mentioned she didn’t feel her NASCAR days were done.

It’s difficult to get sponsorships, so if the chance comes for Deegan to return to NASCAR along with financial freedom, there is no doubt she will be back.