Toni Breidinger struggling in rookie NASCAR Truck Series season

Even before she began her 2024 ARCA Menards Series campaign with Venturini Motorsports, Toni Breidinger felt her time in the series was beginning to run its course. 

Breidinger put together her best ARCA season in 2024, scoring 11 top-10 finishes in 20 races and finishing fourth in the points standings. That led to an opportunity with TRICON Garage — a weekly contender for wins and a perennial contender for the championship — in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series for 2025. 

But 15 races into the 25-race Truck Series slate, Breidinger has struggled to find the speed she showed flashes of in ARCA. The 25-year-old from San Francisco is 22nd in the Truck Series standings through 15 events, ahead of only one other full-time driver, Frankie Muniz. 

To her credit, Breidinger has kept her No. 5 Toyota clean, only suffering two DNFs, one of which was an electrical issue at Texas. But while she's able to keep her truck on track, there isn't much speed to speak of. 

Breidinger has only been able to muster a pair of top-20 finishes so far this season, and while she is a young driver in the middle of her rookie season, a fellow TRICON Garage rookie, 18-year-old Gio Ruggiero, has six top-10 finishes and is 10th in the standings. 

Another one of Breidinger's teammates, Corey Heim, leads the standings and has five victories so far in what has been a historic 2025 season. TRICON's elder statesman, Tanner Gray, a sixth-year driver only three months Breidinger's senior, is 14th in the standings. 

At the end of the day, neither the eye test nor the stat sheet can point to many positives for Breidinger 60% of the way through her maiden voyage in the Truck Series. 

Like in anything, however, there are positives to be found: as previously mentioned, Breidinger takes care of her equipment. In regards to social media and sponsorship, there is perhaps no driver in the Truck Series with more reach, as evidenced by the vast number of major brands Breidinger has been able to bring to NASCAR.