Actor-turned-racer Frankie Muniz has had an interesting 2026 season. He has missed a handful of NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series races where he was meant to compete full-time for Reaume in the No. 33 Ford, but he had a pretty good reason.
Muniz was also busy chasing a GT4 America title, which he achieved with co-driver Tyler Stone in the Am Class after a three-win season. Driving the TechSport Racing Ford Mustang, he earned his first professional racing title after a journey that began twenty years ago.
But with his recent success in sports car racing, will we see less of Muniz in NASCAR going forward?
Frankie Muniz, Team Reaume
Photo by: Jeffrey Vest / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
“It’s been an amazing journey," said Muniz in a Tuesday media availability. "When I do something, I do it fully. People always ask me what my hobbies are, I don’t have hobbies. When I do something, I want to do it at the highest level I can possibly do it and try to be the best. I still feel like I have a lot of unfinished business in the racing world, especially in the NASCAR world. It’s such a tough series. It’s such a tough sport. There are so many good drivers, so many good teams, and I feel like I’ve figured out a lot. I feel like I’m a much better racer and driver than I was when I came in, but I’m still not necessarily seeing the results that I expect to see or want to see.
"So, that’s why I’m not finished yet in the NASCAR world. Like I said earlier, I have an amazing relationship with Ford and I’m so grateful to have an amazing manufacturer supporting my racing journey, and they pushed me this year to give the sportscar world a try because they have the Mustang Challenge Series, the GT4 car, the GT3 car. They have the Hypercar coming out. They’re really putting an emphasis on their sportscar program and I went over there not knowing what to expect and won the championship and won a bunch of races. That felt incredible. That’s not something I’ve ever done in my racing career, like to really kind of be there and feel like you can win, and it feels really good. I’m not gonna lie. That said, I am not finished in the NASCAR world."
Muniz noted that he is taking "guidance from a bunch of places" as he works on the next steps of his career, but again asserted that he "will be racing NASCAR ... As of right now, it’s not necessarily full-time, but it’s not that it won’t be. There’s a lot of moving pieces as always when it comes to everybody’s schedule in the racing world, and we’re ironing it out. I love Josh (Reaume). I love my team and if I’m back in the NASCAR world, it will be with them again, but I know we want to prove what we’ve been working on even more, so we’ll do that, whether it be a part-time basis or full-time, I will be in the NASCAR Truck Series next year in some capacity.”
Muniz embarked on a career in stock car racing with ARCA in 2023, later making starts in the NASCAR O'Reilly Series and even becoming a full-time driver in the NASCAR Truck Series.
It's been a steep learning curve, with highlights including a top five finish in the 2023 ARCA race at Michigan, and a top ten in the 2025 Truck Series season-opener at Daytona.
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