Bob Pockrass
FOX NASCAR Insider
Ben Rhodes, a champion in NASCAR’s truck series, couldn’t believe it as he walked down pit road during a race a couple of years ago and saw a driver in a firesuit that he recognized — but not from racing.
“That’s the guy from the movies,” Rhodes said, remembering doing a double take on pit road. “I couldn’t get over it.”
Yes, it was that guy from the movies and television. Frankie Muniz.
This year, Muniz is a rookie driver in NASCAR’s truck series (think Double-A baseball). Rhodes knows who he is. But not all of his competitors would know Muniz’s lengthy acting resume.
Muniz has had a long love of racing. Go back 20 years, and he was competing in celebrity races shortly after turning 18.
By that time, he was already a household name as a star of the television series “Malcolm in the Middle” from 2000 until 2006 and the movie “Agent Cody Banks” in 2003.
A crash in racing back in 2009 put that career idea on hold while he continued acting and performing. In 2023, he returned to a race car and tried to resume a racing career.
Muniz competed in NASCAR’s ARCA Series in 2023, finishing fourth in the standings but struggled to land funding and rides in 2024 with just a handful of races. He’s back for a full season in 2025 as a rookie in NASCAR’s truck series.
The 39-year-old Muniz now races against some drivers his own age but also drivers more than 20 years younger. Some were just toddlers or infants when Muniz was a well-known actor.
“Most of the kids I’m racing against weren’t alive when the show ended,” Muniz said. “Anyone over the age of 25 probably has seen one of them. But all the young kids? They have no idea.”
How well do his competitors know him from his acting career? We asked more than 20 of them. About a third knew him from “Malcolm in the Middle,” while a third knew him from other projects. And the other third? No idea.
“I’m 34 years old, so I very much remember ‘Malcolm in the Middle,’” said Daniel Hemric. “That was before you could record shows, though, so I had to be sure to be sitting there watching at night.”
Here are responses from drivers who remember him as Malcolm:
“‘Agent Cody Banks’ was one of the DVDs my mom had in her car when we were driving,” said Jack Wood. “I probably watched it a hundred times on repeat.”
Here are more responses from those who remember him from other projects:
And those who have never heard of him:
“When he was in ARCA when they made a really big deal about it. I looked him up and see he was in ‘Malcolm in the Middle’ but I personally have never watched any of those.”
Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR and IndyCar for FOX Sports. He has spent decades covering motorsports, including over 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @bobpockrass.
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