Frankie Muniz thought he had climbed out of the driver’s seat for the final time, but now he’s preparing for his busiest NASCAR season.
The actor-turned-driver will return for his second full-time season with Team Reaume in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, driving a Ford F-150 in 2026. He will also take on a new challenge as an appointed driver for TechSport Racing in the GT4 America season, piloting a Ford Mustang alongside Tyler Stone.
Speaking to PEOPLE, Muniz admitted he believed the 2025 finale in Phoenix might have been the end of the road.
“If I’m being 100% honest, I really thought that last year was gonna be my final year racing,” he said.
“So when I did my last race in Phoenix a month ago, I had this thought like, ‘Well, this could be the last race I ever do as a NASCAR driver.’
“I was like, ‘No way. I’m not done with this. The story is not done. I haven’t accomplished the goals that I want to accomplish in it,’” he explained. “There’s still a lot of unfinished business.”
A packed 2026 schedule
Muniz, now 40, will juggle 25 Truck Series races, seven GT4 America events, and the four-episode revival of Malcolm in the Middle: Life’s Still Unfair. The balancing act does not bother him.
“It’s not a young man’s sport,” he said. “I consider myself fortunate. I’m one of maybe 100 people on the entire planet that have a racing license to race NASCAR. So I know I’ve gotta take advantage of that opportunity.”
Muniz secured a 10th-place finish in only his fifth Truck Series start at Daytona. Yet he admitted the season tested him emotionally.
“The highs of racing are so high, but the lows of racing are really low,” he said. He pointed to a stretch of setbacks that left him wondering whether the universe was pushing him out.
One of those lows came in August, when he fractured his wrist in a fall at home while changing the batteries on a Ring camera. He missed seven weeks.
“The phrase ‘FML’ (Frankie Muniz’s Life) takes on new meaning with moments like these,” he wrote at the time. He returned in October at Talladega.
Muniz on his motivation
Muniz has spent most of his life finding success quickly, from screen roles to early racing opportunities. But NASCAR feels different.
“This is the first thing I feel like, ‘Whoa. This is way harder than I ever imagined it could possibly be,’” he said. “But that motivates me way more to keep fighting for it.”
He hopes to add more top-10 and top-15 finishes next season, and he is clear about his long-term goal.
“When I’m done with it, I wanna look back and go, ‘Okay, I gave it 100% and I’m happy with what I did,’” he said. “I don’t know exactly what that level of success looks like. I think I’ll know it when I accomplish it.”
