Frankie Muniz, famous for playing the lovable Malcolm in Malcolm in the Middle, is no stranger to the spotlight. The kid who made us laugh growing up is now chasing something totally different. Not scripts, not fame, but speed.
These days, he’s the guy behind the wheel of the No. 33 Ford F-150 truck in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. And while it sounds like a dream transition—this season’s been hitting him harder than anyone expected.
Frankie Muniz’s Season So Far
Muniz came into 2025 with fire in his eyes. He kicked off the year with a career best 10th-place finish at Daytona. It wasn’t just his best NASCAR result—it felt like a turning point. People were talking. Fans were hyped. Muniz was motivated and ready to compete for some wins.
But, as we all know, racing can be brutal and highly unpredictable. Since Daytona, it’s been a rough ride for him, literally. Muniz has had three DNFs in just seven races, and his average finish has dropped to 26.7.
That’s not just tough on the stats sheet—it’s tough on the soul. Last weekend at Rockingham, things could’ve gone better. He was actually doing okay when a tiny rock sneaked through his truck’s front grille and busted the power steering line.
And just like that, he was 15 laps down and any chance of a top finish was out the window. He still managed to finish 23rd (his second-best this season) but surely could’ve pulled a better result without that freak incident.
He Just Let It Out
On April 21st, Muniz tweeted something raw and real:
“If I’m being 100% honest… Mentally/emotionally I may be at a new low. Just wanted to say it out loud.”
That post received a lot of attention. Thousands replied. It wasn’t just fans—people like Mr. Beast, Daniel Suarez, and Kenny Wallace all reached out with love and support.
In a recent interview with Kyle Dalton, Muniz opened up even more. He talked about the post and detailed his emotions behind it.
“I never expected for me to do a Tweet at three in the morning and it became the front page of People Magazine and USA Today,” he said. “And everyone who’s written stories about it, they write it and nobody contacted me, right?”
“Nobody knows what’s going on in my head. Nobody knows why I wrote it, but they make it about my racing, or they make it about my team, or they make it about the Malcolm reunion and it’s not any of those things.
“There’s factors of emotion from those things that go into why I wrote that tweet. But I feel like I’m failing in all aspects of my life right now. And a lot of that comes from me being like a hard worker and hard on myself. And I have high expectations for myself.”
However, he was grateful to receive a large number of texts filled with support on X. He admitted, “Yeah, it has been a really amazing thing in a sense because I don’t normally speak that candidly about like emotions or how I feel. And you know, the amount of people that did write me on Twitter or X and I don’t know and that I do know. And then even like people who wrote me, it did make me feel like a lot of people are in my corner.”
Muniz may not be racking up wins yet, but he’s winning hearts by just being honest. And that might be the biggest win of all.