LEBANON, Tenn. — The 2024 season has been less than memorable for Frankie Muniz. And he’ll be the first one to admit it.
The actor turned race car driver has made just three NASCAR starts this season, one of which came in the ARCA Menards Series – where he ran full-time last year. His other two came with Emerling-Gase Motorsports in the Xfinity Series, failing to finish both events at Daytona (Fla.) Int’l Speedway and Phoenix Raceway.
The 38-year-old also attempted Portland (Ore.) Int’l Raceway but missed the show after a blown engine during practice.
Admittedly, the trials and tribulations in Xfinity bothered the Scottsdale, Ariz., native.
“This year has not been the most fun for me as far as racing goes,” Muniz said at Nashville Superspeedway on Friday. “I don’t think I learned anything in the few Xfinity races I did. I might have unlearned stuff, if that makes sense. I kind of lost a bit of confidence.
“It’s just kind of things that were out of our control, as dumb as that sounds. Like Daytona, we were doing what we wanted to do. We were running at the back and waited to the end, and I still got caught up in that wreck on lap 30.
“It was a learning experience in the fact that I just had to learn how to be out of the way. I have never had to look over my shoulder in a race car my whole life, and that’s all I did there. It was eye-opening. It wasn’t fun.
“I know it’s not going to be easy. I’m not expecting to show up here and go set the world on fire. I know that I’ve got to learn and I’m just going to do my best and control what I can.”
But when one door closes, another one opens.
Friday at Nashville, Muniz will attempt to make his Craftsman Truck Series debut with Reaume Brothers Racing, kicking off a three-race slate in the No, 22 Ford F-150 entry. He’ll also enter races at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway and Kansas Speedway, along with an ARCA start at Michigan Int’l Speedway.
Making the show isn’t a given for Muniz, but he hopes to make it in and gain valuable track time from the beginning of practice to the end of the race.
“I’m excited to be somewhere new and in a new truck with a new team,” Muniz said. “I just want to get kind of built up [in practice], get more and more comfortable as I go. So just run as many laps as we can, just getting that experience of kind of feeling what the truck does, what it’s like around other trucks and stuff like that.
“I feel good. I feel confident. We got a lot of time in the sim at Ford, so I feel like we learned a lot there as a team and, hopefully, we can apply it and do well.”
As of now, the Reaume deal is all Muniz has lined up for the rest of 2024, but he’s in talks about potentially adding more races. But at the same time, he already has 2025 in the back of his head.
“I really want to see how we gel with the team and start building a program for next year,” Muniz said. “I want to make a decision soon of kind of where I think I’m going to be, whether be in a truck, Xfinity car — whatever it may be so we can start working together now to be ready for Daytona in February.”