Actor Frankie Muniz has secured a full-time seat in the NASCAR Truck Series for next year, the team announced Tuesday. The former "Malcolm in the Middle" star previously raced part-time in the series for Reaume Brothers Racing, with whom he will transition to a full-time role driving the No. 33 Ford in 2025.
"I'm incredibly excited to join Reaume Brothers Racing full-time in 2025," Muniz said in a statement. "My longstanding relationship with Ford has been a game changer, and I am thrilled to help facilitate additional support allowing us to tap into their exceptional technical and engineering resources. I'm confident that this synergy will elevate Reaume Brothers Racing and help us achieve great things together."
The 38-year-old Muniz is a longtime motorsports enthusiast. A year after the Fox sitcom "Malcolm in the Middle" debuted, he drove the pace car at the 2001 Daytona 500. He began racing in 2004, competing in the annual -- and now defunct -- Toyota Pro/Celebrity Race, and started his professional career in 2006, when he entered 14 races in the Formula BMW USA series.
In 2007, Muniz jumped to the more competitive Champ Car Atlantic Series. He raced until 2009, when a wrist injury led him to step away from the sport.
"I want people to know that I've literally dedicated my life to this," Muniz told People. "You know what I mean? I love it. When I'm not in the race car, I'm thinking about being in the race car. I'm training, I'm in the simulator at Ford, the Ford Performance Technical Center. I'm working with my engineers and my crew chiefs and the team and doing everything I can. Watching tape, watching past races at the racetracks I'm going to just to be as prepared as humanly possible."
Muniz made his stock car racing debut in 2021 and in 2023 competed full-time in the ARCA Menards Series, on the lower levels of NASCAR's feeder system. He finished fourth in the latter last season after earning one top-five and 11 top-10 finishes.
Muniz has competed this season in NASCAR's second-tier Xfinity and Trucks Series, racing twice in each series. His best finish was 29th in a Sept. 27 Trucks race. He is scheduled to compete Saturday in a Truck Series race at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
"I don't want to say it's a long time coming, but this has been a dream of mine for forever," he said. "I started with doing the open wheel route. I thought I was going to go IndyCar, kind of the Formula 1 route, but I always had in the back of my mind that I wanted to try NASCAR. I wanted to do it. I grew up watching NASCAR. I was a huge fan, but it's not something I necessarily thought that I'd ever get the opportunity to do."