‘Malcolm In The Middle’ Star Prepares For NASCAR Career

Let’s go ahead and move ahead all the clichés: “Muniz in the Middle,” and “Malcolm in the Middle…of a Pileup.”

Okay now that we’ve moved past that, let’s talk about the subject at hand: Frankie Muniz is a former child actor who is best known as the lead in “Malcom in the Middle” a popular sitcom that ran from 2000 until 2006. In the lead role on the show, Muniz’s character has an IQ of 165, meaning he’s very smart.

So then, what’s so smart about embarking on a new career when you are nearing the age of 40? That was the question surrounding the recent announcement that Muniz is embarking on a stock car racing career. At the age of 37 Muniz will be racing in the Automobile Racing Club of America (ARCA) Series fulltime this season. ARCA is a feeder series that has led many drivers into the top ranks of NASCAR.

Muniz has ties to NASCAR, in a way. In 2001, while still a teenager, Muniz was the pace car driver for the Daytona 500 at Daytona. He returned to Daytona last week, 22 years later, as testing got underway for the ARCA series season opener next month. In a sort of an ironic twist, he will race a car with chassis from the same one Sterling Marlin raced in the 2001 Daytona 500.

Muniz says he remembers that very well and recalled looking back from the pace car and seeing the No. 40 Marlin was racing, the same one he will race next month.

“It’s kind of a weird thing,” he said. “There’s a video of me in the pace car and the car right behind me is his which I’m driving now.

“It’s definitely special for sure.”

That 2001 Daytona 500 ended tragically in the death of NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt and Muniz has the memories of meeting with Earnhardt prior to the start. Both Marlin, and Earnhardt signed an M&M’s jacket Muniz was wearing.

“I was on the pit road when Dale was getting into his car,” he said. “And he came up to me and he stopped me, and he said, ‘you know, I just have to say that your show has brought me and my daughter so much closer together. I love your show.’ It was like insane to me that Dale Earnhardt is telling me that.”

Next month Muniz will race on the same high banks where he once led the field in a pace car.

“I know what it means for me to have this opportunity,” he said. “I feel like all that makes me feel like I’m in the place I’m supposed to be, you know what I mean?”

Getting to that place, however, didn’t just happen for Muniz. He’s actually had an interest in racing from an early age but got sidetracked along the way. After racing in the Toyota Pro/Celebrity race in Long Beach in 2004, he entered fourteen races in the 2006 Formula BMW USA season then moved up to the Champ Atlantic Series in 2007. His racing stopped in 2009, however, when an accident stalled his racing career.

“I broke my back. I got pins put in my hand I broke my ankle,” he said. “It really was a matter of like, I just took longer to heal than I thought.”

During the healing, Muniz was drawn to something else.

“By the time I was ready to get back in the car, not that you have to essentially start over, but I miss an entire season and I got an opportunity to be in a band,” he said. “I know that sounds crazy.”

Touring with a band, Muniz said, took over his life, but racing was never far from his mind.

“I’ve always thought in the back of my mind, I was going to go back racing,” he said. “But as the years have gone on, it felt further and further away.”

It all changed with the birth of his son in March of 2021 with wife Paige.

“When I had my son 19 months ago, it honestly made me go like, ‘what am I’, like, ‘who am I, who do I want to be’, you know, to my son?

“What do I want him to see me doing? Reaching a goal or trying? I felt like I want to be a race car driver.”

Muniz is aware of the challenges he faces as he dives back into racing. His only real stock car experience came in October of 2021 when he competed in a SRL Pro Late Model series car at Kern County Raceway Park in Bakersfield, California.

“It’s tough,” he said. “You know, I wish now that I’ve gone back racing, I go, ‘man, why did I wait so long?’ You know what I mean? Because now I’m realistically, I’m old to be getting started in the stock car world. But in that same sense, it motivates me that I’ve got to take advantage of the opportunity I have today.

“I don’t have time to waste. So hopefully that helps the progression go a little quicker because I have the motivation, I’m in the right mindset.”

Muniz will race the entire ARCA season this year, and his fellow competitors have so far been welcoming.

“I’ve had so many drivers reach out and say, ‘Hey, I’m so excited for you’”, he said. And they’re kind of few taking me under their wing a little bit, even though I’m a lot older than them. But I’ll obviously take as much advice as possible, and we’ll see where it goes.”

He’s also well aware of what he is up against when the green flag drops and those drivers become his competition on the track.

“This isn’t something that I’ve done for the past 10 years in stock car,” he said “You know, like most people who I’m racing, they came up in late models and super late models and everything to get to this level. I kind of skipped a lot of that.

“I’m realistic and, and I hate to sound cliché when I say this, but really my goal, you know, in my, let’s call it old age, and when I look back at everything I’ve done in the past, I have a greater appreciation for everything I’ve gotten to do and it’s also made me know that when I have an opportunity, I want to put a hundred percent in. So really my goal for the season; you know, it’d be great to win races that obviously that’s a goal, but is every time I climb out of the car, I want to look back at it and go, that was all I had. That I did my best. And if I do that, then I feel like I can’t ask for anything more.”

If Frankie Muniz does put one hundred percent and gets the results to go along with that effort, he might no longer be known as simply an actor.

“I hope people see me out there and see that I belong, you know what I mean?” he said. “That’s the biggest thing. I don’t want people to look at it and be like, ‘Yeah, he’s out there., he’s not very good.’ You know, I want people to think of me, as a good race car driver. Hopefully that’s something that I achieve.”

And as for all the “Malcom in the Middle” clichés:

“I’ll say this: for 23 years since Malcolm premiered, I don’t think there’s one photo of me on the outside, right?” he said. “I’m used to hearing the Malcolm in the Middle references on everything I do in my life.”

“But you know, I’ll be sure to make a Malcolm in the Middle shirt of me in the car,” he added laughing. “I’m going to capitalize on that before someone else does for sure, so don’t worry about that.”