Frankie Muniz: From Hollywood to NASCAR

By Austin Cannon
Feb 27, 2025 | nascar, Frankie Muniz | Posted in Features | Never miss an article

Photograph courtesy NASCAR

Most of us know the name Frankie Muniz from seeing him in TV series like “Malcolm in the Middle” and films like “Agent Cody Banks.” But a whole new generation is being introduced to him as Frankie Muniz, NASCAR driver.

He’s certainly not the first actor to become a race car driver, but he’s taking a far different path than most. We caught up with him at Daytona International Speedway, and he told us about how he fell in love with racing, how he bounced back from a nasty crash, and how he ultimately chose NASCAR for his return to racing.

Photograph by Austin Cannon

As a kid, Frankie woke up early to watch any racing he could–NASCAR, Formula 1 or IndyCar. His family didn’t take him to races or even watch racing on TV with him. It was something he found and fell in love with. When asked if there was any sort of plan to become a race car driver, he said, “It’s like saying you want to be an astronaut. How do you really go about doing that?”

His first foray into racing cars came in the 2004 Toyota Pro/Celebrity Race at the Long Beach Grand Prix, finishing seventh in his first race and then winning the celebrity portion of it the next year. His impressive performance earned him a test with a race team, which then led to him signing on to run the 2006 season of Formula BMW.

For 2007, he moved up to the Champ Car Atlantic series and raced there for three seasons, improving his points position each year he competed. He finished the 2009 season ninth in championship points, even while missing the final three races due to injury. He said that the original plan was to run IndyCar in 2010, but his injury kept him out of the car.

Besides another appearance in the Toyota Pro/Celebrity Race, Frankie spent the next 10-plus years away from racing. As for why he chose stock cars for his return, he said he had always looked at NASCAR and thought, “Man, I think that would be fun. But when you’re in the world of open-wheel racing, you stay in that world.

“It’s like comparing Olympic diving to Olympic swimming,” he continued. “Sure, the concept is the same, but there is nothing you can relate. I think that’s why so many open-wheel guys, when they come this way, they struggle. Everything that you’re used to feeling, it’s the opposite. And it’s actually frightening in comparison with what you’re used to, like stability-wise.”

Photograph by Austin Cannon

Frankie thinks his long break away from racing actually helped him move past some of those transitional struggles, and it showed with his debut in stock cars, culminating in a fourth-place points finish in the 2023 ARCA championship. The next year saw him take a different approach, making his first starts in both the NASCAR Truck and Xfinity series, while running a few races again in the ARCA series.

That Xfinity team was a lower-budget effort, he admitted. “Last year, I got out of the car many times and felt like we had no chance. Every week was like a punch to the gut.”

What kept him motivated through those tough races? “The cool thing is I knew I was going to be with this team for this year since the middle of last year, and we’ve been working this whole offseason,” Frankie said. “I feel like I’ve actually been able to prepare more than any other season.”

He said that this year the team had really stepped up its game: buying new equipment, getting access to a simulator and wind tunnel, and forming an alliance with a team that has won races in each of the last four seasons–and won the series championship in 2022. Frankie said that everyone wants to improve every week to be the best they can be, that they’re not content to just show up each week.

When asked if he had any goals or expectations for the year, he said, “I’m excited to hopefully exceed everyone’s expectations for us. I don’t know if people really have expectations for us. I prefer they don’t, because it’s easier to exceed when they’re not expecting you to do anything. But that’s the goal: We want to get better every week.”

When the first Truck Series race in 2025 arrived, it appeared that the plan for Frankie and his teammates was to make it to the end, so that they could fight for the win. On just the fourth lap, the race leader got turned and crashed out of the race. This was just a taste of the mayhem, as more than 24 trucks were involved in some sort of incident during this race. Going into Turn 3 on the final lap, there was a massive crash at the front of the pack. Frankie was in 19th position when the wreck started, but he made it through the wreck and finished the race in 10th.

Photograph by Austin Cannon

After he climbed from his truck, he said, “I feel great! We made a plan, and we stuck with it. We qualified 14th so we knew the truck was fast.” After they rode in the back most of the race, “with seven [laps] to go I was like, ‘We gotta go!’ and I know I have a lot of damage, but somehow we made it through and I’m thrilled.” He is already looking ahead to the Talladega race in October, the next time that chassis will be used. “I can’t wait, because I know it’s fast, and it feels pretty good knowing that.”

When asked if he felt like the team’s offseason investments really showed tonight, he said, “One hundred percent! I’m thrilled for the team, for Josh [Reaume, team owner], because they work really hard. It’s hard to earn respect in the series, in the garage, and I’m assuming that we did. We’re faster than teams we “shouldn’t be” [using air quotes] faster than on a superspeedway, and that’s pretty cool. They spend a lot more money than we do, and that means that we’re working hard and moving in the right direction.”