The NASCAR regular season kicks off this weekend at the Daytona International Speedway. The Xfinity Series, NASCAR’s second-tier category below the Cup Series, will open its regular season Saturday with the United Rentals 300.
Reigning Xfinity Series champion Cole Custer returns in 2024 as does his closest championship challengers in Justin Allgaier, Sam Mayer, and John Hunter Nemechek. There’s also one notable driver making his first Xfinity series start on Saturday: Frankie Muniz.
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Muniz – known for his title roles in the television show “Malcolm in the Middle” and the movie “Agent Cody Banks” – is racing part-time in the Xfinity Series this season. Saturday’s race marks the biggest of his career and more than a decade in the making.
When did Frankie Muniz start racing?
Muniz first started racing in 2004. He entered the Toyota Pro/Celebrity Race in Long Beach, Calif. as a celebrity racer and finished seventh overall. Three years earlier, he’d driven the pace car for the Daytona 500 and met legend Dale Earnhardt ahead of his fatal final-lap crash.
In 2006, he raced in the open-wheel Formula BMW USA series. Fourteen races saw him finish outside of the points positions. In 2007, Muniz entered the Champ Car Atlantic Series, a lower-tier on the ladder to IndyCar and spent three seasons there. His best result came in 2009 with a fourth-place finish at the then-Miller Motorsports Park (now…
