NASCAR driver Toni Breidinger makes us love stock cars again - a podcast by Hemmings

Remember NASCAR? Yeah, neither do we. Stock car racing used to be the flag we’d fly as kids and there were plenty of fist fights on the playground over drivers, cars, and even the tobacco brand or the beer loyalties. And, depending on where you’re from, that might even still hold true for local dirt track heroes: did you enlist in the Slammin’ Sammy army or are you in the Kinser camp? Look, we all need heroes and NASCAR seemed to have forgotten that.

And then, along came a young, Lebanese-American woman to the sport. Came up through kart racing as a kid. Set the record for most USAC wins by a female (19) on her way up the motorsport ladder. Smart. Media-savvy. And from California, no less. Suddenly, the opposite of everything we expected from this sport we once identified ourselves by, was coming true. And Toni Breidinger bundled it all up in a budding cult of personality that we’re fully digging.

Come on over to BBQ this week and hang out with Toni. She’s fairly freakin’ amazing and turning everything you thought you knew about a stock car driver inside-out. The Skoal Car? Nope—the Huda Beauty Chevy. Pulled pork on the grille in the pits? Not for Toni – she’s vegan. But she did leave everything she knew in Silicon Valley and move to the heart of it all, Charlotte, NC, to pursue her NASCAR career. She’s that serious.

Far as we’re concerned, this young, new driver has a standing invitation to the Hot Rod BBQ. The door’s always open, Toni. Just bring along a couple extra bags of pita chips – we’re still getting used to those vegan hot links...

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