By Cole Cusumano, Staff Writer
After months of anticipation and preparation, former child actor with realized aspirations of becoming a professional stock car driver Frankie Muniz will get to live out his dream once again, as he returns to Kansas Speedway to make his second NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series start driving the No. 22 for Reaume Brothers Racing.
Muniz is seeking to get valuable track time and complete all 134 laps of the Kubota Tractor 200 in what will be his fourth NASCAR national series start – all of which have come this season. Following a pair of DNFs in the NASCAR Xfinity Series for Emerling-Gase Motorsports at Daytona (Fla.) Int’l Speedway and Phoenix Raceway to open the year, the 38-year-old wouldn’t get another opportunity until his Truck Series debut on June 28 at Nashville (Tenn.) Superspeedway, where he succumbed to an overheating issue and was relegated to a 31st-place finish.
While Muniz has struggled to find consistency and stability in 2024, the silver lining is he has logged laps at Kansas before. During the actor turned racer’s full-time ARCA Menards Series campaign last year, he successfully earned one of his 11 top 10s at the 1.5-mile track with an eighth-place effort.
Although he has experience at Kansas, Muniz is tempering expectations going into his second Truck Series start, fully aware of the competitive gap and differences between the two classes of racing.
“Kansas is one of my favorite tracks,” Muniz told Kickin’ the Tires. “Last year, it was the fourth race of my NASCAR racing career. I finished eighth, qualified sixth, like a tenth off of Jesse Love. So, I look at that, I go, ‘All right, he’s one of the best, and I was pretty close there.’ In the fall we were running about the same – fifth or sixth – and I blew a tire like the lap before the stage break (and) hit the wall pretty hard. Otherwise (we) would have been good there.
“So, I feel good, but the Truck Series is a whole different beast. The way the cars race, the way they draft – everything about it is different. Obviously, I want to be competitive, I want to do the best I can, but I’m looking at it as a learning experience. Everything we’re doing now is just making me better for the future.”
In between his sporadic starts this season, Muniz kept busy and focused on improving his craft by working closely with Ford Performance. To remain up to speed for when his next NASCAR opportunity arose, he made frequent trips to Charlotte, N.C., where he logged laps in the simulator, in addition to making a start in ARCA at Michigan Int’l Speedway, where he started and finished 12th back in August.
Muniz was originally slated to compete last weekend in the Truck Series at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway, but the Scottsdale, Ariz. native chose to swap that start with the series finale at his home track in Phoenix Raceway. On top of his start at Kansas this weekend, he will also race at Homestead-Miami Speedway on October 26.
Although nothing has been officially announced, Muniz has teased on multiple occasions he will have a larger racing presence in 2025. For now, he’s looking to make the most of his limited opportunities to close out the year, and that begins with the Kubota Tractor 200 at Kansas Speedway on Friday, Sept. 27 at 8:30 p.m. ET on Fox Sports 1, the Motor Racing Network, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.
“I’m excited to get out there,” Muniz said. “ Just getting to learn that kind of race craft throughout the entire race – thinking about strategy with tires and fuel and pit stops … there’s so many things that I’m still learning for the first time. That’s kind of really what my goal is for these last three races I’m doing this year; really gelling with the team and my engineers, figuring out the pit stops, learning all that, so when we show up to Daytona next year, I’m ready”