Toni Breidinger is officially back in the driver’s seat. This Saturday, she will return to Rackley W.A.R.’s No. 26 Chevrolet for the Craftsman Truck Series’ Race to Stop Suicide 200 at Kansas Speedway. She reclaims the ride just weeks after the weekend at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway, where a last-minute team decision left her without a starting spot.
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Her return has been made possible because Rackley W.A.R.’s full-time driver, Dawson Sutton, is taking a small break from NASCAR. Sutton, son of team co-owner Chris Sutton, is missing the race in Kansas, as reported by journalist Joseph Srigley.
Instead, he will compete in a Super Late Model event at Five Flags Speedway as part of his preparation for December’s prestigious Snowball Derby. The timing makes sense for Sutton. He is currently 18th in the Truck Series standings and did not qualify for the postseason. This gives him flexibility to prioritize the Super Late Model event.
However, this is only temporary, and he will return to the Truck Series in October at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
The decision gives Breidinger an opportunity to make a strong comeback after New Hampshire. Heading into that race, Rackley W.A.R. used a strategy to get both trucks into the field. The team moved full-time driver Sutton into the part-time No. 27 and placed Breidinger in the No. 26. This gave Breidinger a built-in safety net, allowing her to rely on the No. 26’s higher owner points to guarantee a spot in the starting lineup.
Sutton needed to qualify the No. 27, however, brake issues during Friday’s practice caused him to not even attempt a qualifying lap. While Breidinger successfully locked the No. 26 into the 34th starting position, Sutton failed to qualify. To make sure their full-time driver actually got to race, team management benched Breidinger and handed her starting spot back to Sutton.
This weekend, though, she can just focus on the race, and Kansas in particular is a great place to do that. In 2023, she made her Craftsman Truck Series debut at Kansas and secured a career-best 15th-place finish. Returning to her most successful NASCAR track, she will look to build momentum after a part-time schedule that has yielded a best finish of 18th at Texas across her three starts this year.
Despite her recent struggles in NASCAR, Breidinger brings considerable stock-car experience to the opportunity.
The first female Arab driver to ever compete in NASCAR has made 65 ARCA Menards Series starts and recorded 27 top-10 finishes, the most by a female driver in ARCA Menards history. Before transitioning to stock cars, she won 19 races in the USAC Western US Asphalt Midget Series and clinched the championship in 2016.
Racing at this level also means requiring a lot of money, and Breidinger has found a way to manage that. In 2024, she signed with IMG Models, and last year she modelled in Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. She uses the income and mainstream exposure from her modeling campaigns as calculated leverage to fund her NASCAR ambitions.
“I always joke that I feel like Hannah Montana because I have like these two different lives that I’m living and they’re polar opposites,” Breidinger had previously said.
With Sutton returning to the Truck Series at Charlotte and Breidinger taking his seat at Kansas, the two drivers are now focused on different racing priorities. After Kansas, Breidinger is scheduled to make one more Truck Series start in 2026. She will return at Talladega Superspeedway on October 23.