By Sally Shakkour
A Lebanese-American female has made it to the NASCAR Cup Series becoming the first Arab female to participate in the rally. Toni Breidinger has received loads of support from other Arab females and social media users for taking part in such an important event.
The 21-year-old woman expressed self-confidence for joining in the 2021 ARCA season-opener at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona, Florida on Saturday, Feb. 13th; she added that this is considered “the biggest race of her career.”
Race day tomorrow. Let’s go @DAYTONA @youngsmtrsports @TeamChevy pic.twitter.com/6T2hnN79Ul
— Toni Breidinger (@ToniBreidinger) February 13, 2021
Not only social media users, international news websites, such as CNN international, People, and many other news outlets, have written about Breidinger’s victory describing her of making history for becoming the first Arab female in the race.
The driver spoke to CNN on being the first Arab American female driver to participate at Daytona International Speedway: "I'm honored and excited to be the first, but I don't want to be the last." She also said according to her team's Young’s Motorsports: "It's been one of my dreams to have the chance to race, and to have that dream come true is absolutely unreal."
Fantastic news in the #NASCAR world: @ToniBreidinger is the first Arab American female driver to race in a national series! "When the helmet comes on & I'm racing, it's not about being a female driver anymore. I'm just like anyone else trying to get to the finish line." #DAYTONA pic.twitter.com/Idcgns6Iip
— The Maiden Factor (@maidenfactor) February 15, 2021
Nevertheless, Breidinger celebrated gaining more than 1 million followers across her social media accounts as she has teamed up with multiple brands including, Head and Shoulders, Sunny D, Kim Kardashian’s SKIMS, Tory Burch, Sparco and Bell Helmets.
Toni Breidinger makes history as Nascar’s first Arab-American female driver https://t.co/qpzyd0Y1sB via @TheNationalNews
— Mina Al-Oraibi (@AlOraibi) February 16, 2021
This year, Michael McDowell was announced the winner of the 2021 Daytona 500 victory, which is his first in the NASCAR Cup Series, after his competitives Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano collided on the final lap of the 63rd Great American Race.
.@Mc_Driver's 2021 goal? Win.
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) February 16, 2021
He did just that. #DAYTONA500 pic.twitter.com/1xfhvZjcJm
NASCAR, the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company as well as it is familiar for stock car racing. The privately owned company was founded by Bill France Sr. in 1948.
His son Jim France has been the CEO since August 6, 2018. Each year, NASCAR sanctions over 1,500 races at over 100 tracks in 48 US states as well as in Canada, Mexico, and Europe, according to Wikipedia.
