Frankie Muniz has made plenty of money in his acting career, but even with that, his passion has long been racing.
His dreams hit a new level as he made his NASCAR Xfinity Series debut in the season opener at Daytona.
After running a full-time campaign with Rette Jones Racing in 2023 in the ARCA Menards Series, Muniz was ready to take a big step, however, his first Xfinity start didn't go as smoothly as he would have liked.
Muniz only made it 37 laps in his debut run behind the wheel of the No. 35 Ford Mustang for Joey Gase Motorsports, as he got caught up in a big crash.
Muniz spoke about his unfortunate early end with Joseph Srigley from tobychristie.com. He had hoped playing it safe would have worked, but races at Daytona just don't work out that way.
"It's bad luck really, because that's what getting through something like that is — you get lucky if you make it. Unfortunate, because we were literally trying to be cautious," Muniz said. "Even the whole first run we were chilling where we were and just kind of getting comfortable. I just did my first real pit stop ever. I had hoped to do more than that to get more experience, so it's unfortunate."
At 38 years old he's quite a bit older than most rookies at this level, but Muniz has always had a dream of doing this. Now, there are rumors flying around about his possible buy-in with Joey Gase Motorsports with a photo circulating on social media that seems to imply that "Malcolm in the Middle" is now a co-owner of a newly named Gase-Muniz Motorsports team.
According to Racing News.co, no official word has been announced, but things seem to be shaping toward a future announcement, as it has been very clear that Muniz's Xfinity Series starts will be behind the wheel of the No. 35 with Gase's team. And the team bought owner points from Sam Hunt Racing that secured Muniz's spot in races that he will run in 2024.
Despite his struggles in Daytona, it appears Muniz is well on his way to sticking around NASCAR. Especially if the rumors aren't true.
