Actor Frankie Muniz to Race Full-Time in NASCAR Truck Series in 2025

To some, Frankie Muniz will always be the star of the Fox sitcom Malcolm in the Middle or “Agent Cody Banks”, but in 2025, the 38-year-old will be a full-time NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series driver, piloting a Ford for Reaume Brothers Racing.

“I really want to give next year a full-blown effort and see where we stack up and make decisions based on what I’m gonna do after that,” Muniz said. “I want to be able to look back at this experience, good or bad … and feel like I tried by best. I gave it a fair shot.

“My focus is 100% (on) being a race car driver. There are gaps (in next year’s schedule), but I’m not trying to fill them with other things. Obviously, you don’t know what’s gonna happen as an actor. You don’t know what opportunity may come up. (But if we have three weeks off) those weeks are going to be used to prep for the next six races that are in a row. That’s the focus.”

Muniz made his stock car racing debut in 2023 in ARCA, recording one top-five and 11 top-10 finishes in 20 races. This year, however, hasn’t gone as Muniz planned.

“This year, we thought it was going to be one thing and it wasn’t,” said Muniz, who entering the NASCAR race weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway had competed this year in two races each in the Xfinity, Craftsman Truck and ARCA Menards series.

“My wife went to Italy by herself this year because I couldn’t commit to going with her because I needed to be available for something that we thought was going to happen and then it didn’t happen.”

Muniz also was extremely sick during the summer, bed-ridden for almost six weeks. He lost 30 pounds.

“It was bad. I got some crazy parasite in Mexico, so I’m not going there anytime soon,” Muniz said.

“I was supposed to be fulltime this year and then when that happened, I was going to do 10 races in Xfinity and a bunch of truck races. It just kept evolving with the situations I had. I don’t want to sound negative, but I’ve tried to forget most of what I did this year. I feel like I haven’t even gotten the opportunity to even try to race with people.”

Muniz currently resides in Scottsdale, Ariz., but says he will be based in Charlotte, N.C., during the racing season next year.

“I want to put myself into every situation I can to be better as a race car driver,” Muniz said. “So, if that’s spending more time with the team, if that’s going over stuff with engineers and watching past races with my spotter and being in the simulator … great, let’s do it. Going back-and-forth is not easy. I just want to fully immerse myself in being a NASCAR driver, and the best way to do that is to really be by the team in Charlotte.”

Muniz is competing at Homestead and Phoenix with the Reaume Brothers team as part of their preparations for next season.