Frankie Muniz Lets Slip Xfinity Series’ Part-Time Itinerary as He Publicly Snubs Arca’s ‘Real Pit-Stop’ Status

Published 02/21/2024, 12:46 AM HKT

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A lot of people may know him for his Emmy-winning performance as Malcolm from Malcolm in the Middle. However, Frankie Muniz is slowly but steadily making big strides in the world of motor racing. He ran full time in the ARCA Menards Series last year and made his debut in the NASCAR Xfinity Series at Daytona on Monday. The former actor took a sly dig at ARCA after crashing out from the United Rentals 300 as he said that he made his first real pitstop in the event.

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The United Rentals 300 was a crash-filled affair that saw nine cautions. The race could have ended under a tenth caution like the Truck and Cup Series races, but race control decided to let the leaders fight it out despite a last lap crash. Muniz, unfortunately, was not involved in the finish as he wrecked early on.

Frankie Muniz rues braving the Daytona grass to avoid the big one

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Thankfully, Frankie Muniz was able to complete stage 1 of the race, but it was what followed that caused a lot of chaos. On lap 37, John Hunter Nemechek pushed Jesse Love, which caused the big one and the driver of the #35 was caught up in it. Love said that he had wanted to avoid the wreckage and moved to the inside but made a crucial error in judgment as he moved on to the still-wet grass of the in-field.

“There were a bunch of pretty fast cars behind us so kind of just staying on the inside, letting them go by and before I knew it, I just saw a bunch of smoke. Tons of cars going all over the place and I thought I picked the right side to go through but I just happened to go on the grass and the grass was still so wet from all the rain. So, just lost the rear and ran into someone,” he said to Frontstretch after being released from the care center.

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He then proceeded to explain how unfortunate the incident was as the Joey Gase Motorsports car was not even being aggressive, just hanging back and staying away from the chaos. It was here that he mentioned making his first-ever real pit stop despite running the whole schedule in the ARCA Menards Series last year.

“It’s bad luck really cause that’s kind of what getting through something like that is, you get lucky if you make it…unfortunate because we were literally trying to be cautious. Even the whole first run. We were chilling where we were, just kind of getting comfortable. I did my first pit stop ever, you know, like a real pit stop. Hope to do more than that, and get some more experience,” the 38-year-old added.

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His debut in the competition might not have gone to plan, but Frankie Muniz is not done with Xfinity Series racing this year. Towards the end of the interview, the Emmy-winning actor revealed the next race of the competition he will be present at.

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It is only Muniz’s second year in stock car racing, but he sure seems to have the talent for it. He ran in ARCA last year with Rette Jones Racing and earned 11 top-ten finishes in 20 races and finished the campaign with a fourth place in the points standings. This impressed Ford Performance who decided to take a chance with the actor-turned-racer in a big NASCAR race. While things did not work out the way the #35 team planned, it was not their only chance.

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“I obviously wish my Xfinity debut was better than this but so grateful to Ford Performance for giving me this opportunity. The fact that this is my second year in stock car racing and I made it to the Xfinity Series, I’m pretty happy with that. I know I have a long way to go it’s just the beginning…we’ll be doing a lot of racing this year. Next on the schedule is Phoenix so we’ll be at Phoenix,” Muniz said when asked about his plans for the year.

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It will be interesting to see the 38-year-old take part in the Phoenix race on March 10. Can Frankie Muniz be successful in the NASCAR Xfinity Series even if it is in a part-time role? Let us know your thoughts.

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Written by:

Nilavro Ghosh

745Articles

One take at a time

Nilavro Ghosh is a NASCAR Writer at EssentiallySports, where he is known for his creative yet easy-to-read writing style. Before taking up his role as a sports journalist at ES, Nilavro has written for some of the top publishing houses, like The Telegraph. While most journalists stop at covering live events and taking the news to the readers, Nilavro goes the extra mile to give fans a platform for them to express their thoughts through his 'race reaction' pieces.
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Edited by:

Rohan Karnad

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