NASCAR’s Toni Breidinger beats Caitlin Clark, Sha’Carri Richardson, and Nelly Korda as Top Gen Z female athlete on social media

NASCAR Truck Series driver Toni Breidinger has surpassed elite athletes like Nelly Korda, Sha'Carri Richardson, and Caitlin Clark. The fashion model and stock car racer has aced the "Top Gen Z Female Athletes on Social Media" list, dethroning the greats from different sports.

Breidinger runs part-time in the Truck Series, is a full-time ARCA Menards driver, and participated in the Victoria's Secret 2023 Tour as a model for Victoria Beckham's brand. According to the data presented by the renowned social media analytics company Zoomph, since 2023, the 24-year-old's Instagram account has the most engagement among the Top 10 female Gen Z athletes at 38.3 million.

"Gen Z athletes" is a term used for players born after 1997. These players pursue their sporting careers through their colleges and studies. However, through the power of social media, they have comparatively amassed a bigger fan following from their early days in sports than veteran athletes.

Zoomph posted the numbers on X (formerly Twitter). Toni Breidinger has overtaken WNBA star Caitlin Clark, who is among the greatest collegiate players ever (8.8 million). She has also passed track and field prodigy Sha'Carri Richardson, who holds the fastest 100m sprint in the NCAA Division I Championships at 10.75 seconds (6.9 million). Breidinger has passed No. 1 LPGA golfer Nelly Korda as well (2.4 million) — Korda won the Gold medal at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.

Toni Breidinger was "honored" after her induction at the pinnacle spot on the list

Though Breidinger outperformed all the female Gen Z athletes, she could've been placed second if WNBA star Angel Reese's statistics had showcased better performance in a few metrics.

The Chicago Sky power forward has more engagement on her Instagram than the leader. Breidinger engages 242,384 accounts per post on average, while Reese boasts 313,737 engagements. Moreover, the 22-year-old WNBA player has 3.28 million Instagram followers, over half a million more than Breidinger's 2.71 million followers.

Nonetheless, the NASCAR driver has 158 posts compared to Reese's 68, a whopping 298 million impressions over the Maryland native's 177.9 million, and nearly double Reese's social value of $6.9 million at $12.3 million.

With that, Toni Breidinger boasts 38.2 million engagements over Angel Reese's 23.1 million. Toni Breidinger cherished her pinnacle spot and expressed her honor while outlining the bright future of females in sports. She replied to Zoomph's LinkedIn post.

"Future is female, honored to be included with all these Trail Blazers," the Truck Series driver wrote.

Toni Breidinger replies to Zoomph's social media engagement data (Image: LinkedIn)

Another notable inductee was Emma Raducanu in the third spot. She became the first British woman since Virginia Wade to clinch a Grand Slam title. After Wade's Wimbledon triumph in 1977, Raducanu bagged the 2021 U.S. Open title.