Frankie Muniz is ready to spend his time on the track as a full-time NASCAR driver Malcolm in the middle Alumnus, 38, who started racing in 2004. and began his professional career in 2006, he joins Reaume Brothers Racing as the full-time driver of the no. 33 F-150s in the upcoming 2025 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series season.
“I don’t want to say that it will be a long time, but this is my eternal dream,” he told PEOPLE in an exclusive interview.
“I started with open-wheel racing. I thought I would go to IndyCar, a kind of Formula 1 circuit, but I always had in mind that I wanted to try NASCAR. I wanted to do it. I grew up watching NASCAR, I was a big fan, but that it’s not something I necessarily thought I’d ever get the chance to do,” says Muniz.
Frankie Muniz at Circuit of The Americas.
FIA World Endurance Championship/Instagram
Frankie Muniz wants son Mauz to see him ‘reach for the dream’ with his first appearance at Daytona
The announcement comes after Muniz competed in the 2023 ARCA Menards Series, where he collected one top-five finish and 11 top-ten finishes, culminating in a fourth-place finish at the end of the year. Since joining Ford Performance that same year, he has competed in limited races in the NASCAR Xfinity Series and Mustang Challenge Series.
The former child star says joining “one of the big three national NASCAR series” full-time is “really exciting,” though he knows he still has “a lot to prove to myself and everybody.”
“I want people to know that I have literally dedicated my life to this,” he tells PEOPLE. “You know what I mean? I love it. When I’m not in a race car, I’m thinking about being in a race car. I’m training, I’m in the simulator at Ford, the Ford Performance Technical Center. I’m working with my engineers and crew chiefs and doing everything I can , I watch tapes on racetracks just to be as fit as humanly possible.
While Muniz says “closing the door” to acting was “not a topic of discussion,” he is busy “focusing on being a race car driver.”
“I hope to just prove to people that I can do both. That’s all I can do. I can’t, but I hope I will, and I hope I can this season,” he tells PEOPLE, noting that he hopes his fans see him and his team “putting in the work”.
Frankie Muniz’s three-year-old son Mauz made his first appearance on the red carpet at the Steve Irwin Gala in Las Vegas
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A crew member pushes the No. 22 Ford Performance Ford driven by Frankie Muniz during practice for the NAStruck Craftsman Truck Series Rackley Roofing 200 at Nashville Superspeedway on June 28, 2024 in Lebanon, Tenn.
James Gilbert/Getty
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“Kid from Malcolm in the middle is racing in NASCAR. You know what I mean? And that’s what people say, but I am. I succeeded,” says Muniz, noting that he is determined to “turn some heads.”
“I don’t want to just get to NASCAR — I want, when people think of the truck series, they think of NASCAR they think of, oh, ‘I want to watch Frankie. He’s a competitive competitor. He’s this,’ ” he says. “So I’m doing what I can.”
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Source: HIS Education