Frankie Muniz celebrates biggest achievement of new career after going full-time

Best known for playing Malcolm, Frankie Muniz recently went full-time with a whole other kind of career.

Plenty of fans grew up with the actor playing the lead in Malcolm in the Middle along with roles in the likes of Racing Stripes and Big Fat Liar.

But nowadays, while a reunion looms, Muniz is busy being a professional stock car racing driver. And on Friday (15 January), he had the biggest achievement of his new career.

The 39-year-old was competing in the NASCAR truck series for the fifth time when he had his best finish yet.

Muniz has had a pretty long-running interest in car racing and his career traces back to 2004. However, he took an over a decade-long break after an injury before making his stock car racing debut in 2021.

On Friday, he initially finished 11^th in Daytona Beach before being bumped up a spot following the disqualification of fellow racer Parker Kligerman, whose truck ended up being ruled out because of a rear suspension issue.

And it’s fair to say Muniz was pretty made up with even his 11^th place finish.

He told NASCAR on Fox: "We finished 11^th you know, I couldn’t ask for anything better. I think this truck was so fast. I mean, we were in second pack, I passed all the second pack, had a half a straightaway to the front pack, and by myself, caught them."

The star said after this he ‘can’t wait for Talladega’, the city in Alabama, where the NASCAR Race Weekend is set to take place on 25-27 April ‘because this truck’s good’.

"I know I have to prove myself here," the star added.

Muniz explained he ‘didn’t have the opportunity to do that’ last year and says this is a step in him earning ‘respect’.

"I still don’t think they know what I can do or not," he said of other drivers on his team, "so I want to earn their respect too, and the only way to do that is to do it on the track."

The star was visibly excited as he reflected on the race before closing with: "Man, it worked out, I’m happy. This was great."

Sharing snaps from race day on Instagram afterwards, he celebrated finishing tenth place ‘in the first race of my full-time NASCAR season’ as he said he ‘was screaming’.

Of course, while he might now be a full-time racer, he’s still keeping up the acting as he’s set to reprise his role as Malcolm for a Disney+ reboot of the beloved show.