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Frankie Muniz is four races into his first full-time season in the NASCAR Truck Series. After impressively opening the 2025 campaign at Daytona with a 10th-place result, the Reaume Brothers Racing driver has seen a drop-off in his finishes, including a 26th at Atlanta and a pair of 24th-place results at Las Vegas and Homestead-Miami Speedway on Friday.
Despite the finish at Atlanta, the No. 33 driver felt good about his day that was cut short after being involved in a late crash. Interestingly, at Las Vegas and Homestead, in addition to finishing 24th at both 1.5-mile tracks, the 39-year-old qualified with the same starting position of 29th.
But the races couldn’t have been more different.
Frankie Muniz at NASCAR Truck Series race at Phoenix Raceway.Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images
In Sin City, Muniz never felt comfortable in the truck. It started in practice when he almost wrecked and backed into the fence multiple times.
”It really kind of hurt me confidence-wise to like push harder, to drive faster when I'm already like almost losing control,” Muniz admitted. “So in the race, obviously you try to push, you're trying to be competitive, you try to just fight. And I never got comfortable in the race car. Like, I just didn't.
"I'm usually pretty good at like telling myself to breathe when I go into the corners, allowing my body to relax. And I drove that entire race so tense that I was so sore for days after. I was just so tense. I could not relax…I was pretty upset because it kind of made me go, we had such a positive Daytona, we were racing really good at Atlanta, and this was the first time where I was kind of like, oh, shoot, can I do this? You start second-guessing yourself again.”
Fast forward to Friday in Florida. On his mom’s birthday and the first time she’d seen him race in NASCAR, the No. 33 started slow. Instead of taking the advice of his team and migrating up to the top and the preferred high line up against the fence, he stayed on the bottom and hugged the white line.
”So they were trying to have me go up high because like that is usually the trend of where you'd go at Homestead,” he said. “And the few times I would try it, whether it be me or someone else would go to the inside and take air off my nose. So I tried to go to the middle. The truck just didn't feel as comfortable there.
“It was kind of an overall lack of grip. And I just was excited for the next lap to get it back to the bottom because it was so stuck. I've never felt like a rear end so solid on a race truck as they did there.”
Throughout the first half of the race, his spotter also tried to get him to pull up next to his competitors on his outside and side draft, which would pull the other truck back and propel him forward. His initial attempts failed.
Then, in that final stage, something clicked.
”I figured out how to do it and I used it a bunch and had some amazing battles,” Muniz said. "Getting by guys and figuring it out and it was super fun.”
He used the move to pass multiple cars and earn that 24th-place result. Moments after crossing the finish line, the driver couldn’t contain his excitement.
“I know it's not like an amazing result, but man that felt like the best race of my life,” he said over the team radio. “Like I felt like I was battling and had to work guys. I love this! Thank you guys!”
That excitement continued several days after the race.
“It might sound like a low, like as a driver, I shouldn't like hope for that I should have higher expectations for myself,” he said. “But it just felt incredible to figure things out and work with the team, and the truck felt really good. I was really happy with how it went. Like obviously nobody fell outta the race. Like normally you're gonna have five, maybe, even more trucks fall out.
"So you go if it were normal in that sense and we still finished, who we were racing, we got a top 20 easy, right? I just felt awesome. Maybe it was also just the contrast and how I felt from the week prior, that dramatic change of comfortability in the truck and fun that I had in the race car that felt like a massive, massive win.
“It excited me again for the rest of the season to get back to mile-and-a-halves and go, alright, I can figure out how to get by guys. I can race with these guys.”
Muniz and the Truck Series return to action on Friday at Martinsville. Race coverage begins at 7:30 p.m. ET on FS1.
Continue reading...
Despite the finish at Atlanta, the No. 33 driver felt good about his day that was cut short after being involved in a late crash. Interestingly, at Las Vegas and Homestead, in addition to finishing 24th at both 1.5-mile tracks, the 39-year-old qualified with the same starting position of 29th.
But the races couldn’t have been more different.
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Frankie Muniz at NASCAR Truck Series race at Phoenix Raceway.Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images
In Sin City, Muniz never felt comfortable in the truck. It started in practice when he almost wrecked and backed into the fence multiple times.
”It really kind of hurt me confidence-wise to like push harder, to drive faster when I'm already like almost losing control,” Muniz admitted. “So in the race, obviously you try to push, you're trying to be competitive, you try to just fight. And I never got comfortable in the race car. Like, I just didn't.
"I'm usually pretty good at like telling myself to breathe when I go into the corners, allowing my body to relax. And I drove that entire race so tense that I was so sore for days after. I was just so tense. I could not relax…I was pretty upset because it kind of made me go, we had such a positive Daytona, we were racing really good at Atlanta, and this was the first time where I was kind of like, oh, shoot, can I do this? You start second-guessing yourself again.”
Fast forward to Friday in Florida. On his mom’s birthday and the first time she’d seen him race in NASCAR, the No. 33 started slow. Instead of taking the advice of his team and migrating up to the top and the preferred high line up against the fence, he stayed on the bottom and hugged the white line.
”So they were trying to have me go up high because like that is usually the trend of where you'd go at Homestead,” he said. “And the few times I would try it, whether it be me or someone else would go to the inside and take air off my nose. So I tried to go to the middle. The truck just didn't feel as comfortable there.
“It was kind of an overall lack of grip. And I just was excited for the next lap to get it back to the bottom because it was so stuck. I've never felt like a rear end so solid on a race truck as they did there.”
Throughout the first half of the race, his spotter also tried to get him to pull up next to his competitors on his outside and side draft, which would pull the other truck back and propel him forward. His initial attempts failed.
Then, in that final stage, something clicked.
”I figured out how to do it and I used it a bunch and had some amazing battles,” Muniz said. "Getting by guys and figuring it out and it was super fun.”
He used the move to pass multiple cars and earn that 24th-place result. Moments after crossing the finish line, the driver couldn’t contain his excitement.
“I know it's not like an amazing result, but man that felt like the best race of my life,” he said over the team radio. “Like I felt like I was battling and had to work guys. I love this! Thank you guys!”
That excitement continued several days after the race.
“It might sound like a low, like as a driver, I shouldn't like hope for that I should have higher expectations for myself,” he said. “But it just felt incredible to figure things out and work with the team, and the truck felt really good. I was really happy with how it went. Like obviously nobody fell outta the race. Like normally you're gonna have five, maybe, even more trucks fall out.
"So you go if it were normal in that sense and we still finished, who we were racing, we got a top 20 easy, right? I just felt awesome. Maybe it was also just the contrast and how I felt from the week prior, that dramatic change of comfortability in the truck and fun that I had in the race car that felt like a massive, massive win.
“It excited me again for the rest of the season to get back to mile-and-a-halves and go, alright, I can figure out how to get by guys. I can race with these guys.”
Muniz and the Truck Series return to action on Friday at Martinsville. Race coverage begins at 7:30 p.m. ET on FS1.
Continue reading...
