Frankie Muniz joins NASCAR as a race car driver

• Frankie Muniz has revealed that he has signed to lead a “minor league” NASCAR team.
• Muniz has been racing cars for over 16 years and wants to get into the NASCAR Cup Series.
• The 37-year-old TV star considers himself a full-time driver who also works on the side.

Frankie Muniz will soon be in the middle of NASCAR racing as he moves one step closer to his dream of driving at motorsport’s highest level.

Former “Malcolm in the Middle” actor and star has announced he is joining Rette Jones Racing as a driver in the ARCA Menard Series for the 2023 season. The ARCA Menard Series is considered a “minor league” for stock car racing, and is often used to develop drivers for the higher-level Cup Series, ranking lower Just under the second and third tiers of NASCAR, the Xfinity and Truck Series.

Following the announcement, Muniz’s new team shared photos and video from Daytona International Speedway, where he was testing his new wheels.

—Rette Jones Racing (@RetteJones30) January 14, 2023

During an interview in July with SiriusXM NASCAR Radio’s Dave MoodyMuñiz revealed that he was in talks to join teams at various levels of NASCAR.

“I want to be realistic,” Muniz said. “Obviously, I haven’t done a lot of oval racing. So every place I’m going next year is going to be fresh. In that same sense, I want to go fast, [also] I don’t want to throw myself away… I want to make sure I’m ready. It’s all about putting the best deal together with truck riding or ARCA riding…that’s the point, being in a truck or doing an ARCA national or both. ”

Muniz, 37, grew up a fan of racing and has been driving competitively since 2006.

“I would say right now that I am acting sideways,” Muniz said during an appearance in the FS1 booth during last year’s NASCAR All-Star Open race. “I want my focus to be on racing. It’s one of those things you have to do 100 percent. You can’t just do it halfway through. If I want to get to any level of NASCAR — ARCA, trucks, whatever — I’m I race people who have been doing it since they were six years old, and I have to do it fast.”

Both Muniz and his “Malcolm in the East” co-host Bryan Cranston confirmed that there is Talks to reboot the show, possibly as a movie.

The transition to oval racing is not as easy as some might think

Muniz has recently been a late-racing pro on short tracks to learn oval racing, admitting he’s a very different beast from the open-wheel and road racing he’s been competing in. Some of the best drivers in the world have noted that commuting is more difficult than it looks.

Formula 1 racer Daniel Ricciardo, who grew up a NASCAR fan in Australia, spoke to Insider earlier this past season. About how difficult it is to switch to oval races.

“I’d like to drive an oval just to kind of see, but I probably don’t want to compete because I just, I don’t think I’m going to be competitive and I probably wouldn’t do it fairly,” Ricciardo told Insider. “A road course or something would be fun, but I’m going to walk before I can run. It’s such a different system that I want to do some testing and see where I stand. And let’s say if all of this goes well and I have a lot of confidence in the car, then, You know, I might raise my hand, but I’m not going to jump to conclusions. It’s a completely different beast.”

In a recent interview with Dan Katz of “Pardon My Take,” F1 champion Max Verstappen has revealed that he loves racing NASCAR cars on his simulator, although he admitted it would take him a long time to become good at the sport in real life.

“It’s a completely different system,” said Verstappen. “to [F1 drivers] To get a good performance, it will also take a long time. You know, it’s not easy,” he said later, adding that Driver really needed to “grow up with it” to get good.