Frankie Muniz Quietly Became a Full-Time NASCAR Driver

Most people who grew up on Fox in the early 2000s remember Frankie Muniz as the wisecracking genius stuck in a chaotic family on Malcolm in the Middle. Almost nobody expected him to spend the next two decades chasing checkered flags instead of scripts.

He Left Hollywood at His Peak

Malcolm in the Middle ran for seven seasons and ended in May 2006. Within weeks, Muniz announced he was stepping away from acting to pursue racing full-time, signing a two-year deal with Jensen Motorsport in the Formula BMW series. He spent the late 2000s racing in the Champ Car Atlantic Series, then largely stepped back from the sport for over a decade.

The Comeback Nobody Saw Coming

Muniz returned to racing in 2021 with a stock car debut, and in 2023 he ran a full ARCA Menards Series season with Rette Jones Racing, finishing fourth in the championship. In 2024 he tested multiple NASCAR series before committing to a full-time ride. In 2025, he became a full-time NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series driver, piloting the No. 33 Ford for Team Reaume.

A Top-10 Rookie Season, Interrupted by a Backyard Camera

Muniz opened his rookie Truck Series season with a top-10 finish at Daytona, the fifth top-10 result in Team Reaume's history, and later added a top-15 at Michigan. His season wasn't without setbacks: he missed four races after fracturing his wrist in a fall from a ladder while changing the batteries on a Ring camera in his backyard.

Doubling Down for 2026

Muniz has re-signed with Team Reaume to run the No. 33 Ford full-time again for the 2026 Truck Series season, and he's also added a full-time SRO GT4 America campaign, driving a Mustang GT4 for Techsport Racing alongside co-driver Tyler Stone. "I cannot wait," Muniz said of the season ahead. "It's going to be a crazy busy year."

Malcolm Came Back Too

In between race weekends, Muniz found time to reprise his most famous role. Malcolm in the Middle: Life's Still Unfair, a four-episode revival for Disney+ and Hulu, was filmed in 2025 and released in April 2026 with most of the original cast, including Bryan Cranston and Jane Kaczmarek. But racing stayed the full-time job. Muniz now holds an official NASCAR.com driver page, the kind of credential that has nothing to do with acting at all.