The 2025 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series season has not been kind to rookies — well, unless your name is Gio Ruggiero, who is currently running 11th in points. Every other rookie is running 16th or worse in the point standings.
If you look all the way back to 24th in the standings, you’ll find Frankie Muniz, the actor-turned-racer who is in the midst of his first full-time season in the Truck Series with Reaume Brothers Racing.
Muniz returns to full-time competition after spending 2024 running part-time in the Truck Series, as well as the Xfinity Series and ARCA Menards Series. Muniz will be the first to tell you that most of the races he ran or attempted in 2024 included some sort of bad luck. He failed to qualify for the Xfinity race at Portland International Raceway after an engine issue — and that came after crashing out of the season opener at Daytona International Speedway a couple months earlier.
An ARCA start at Michigan International Speedway didn’t go as planned, a year after Muniz earned his best career finish (fifth) at that very track. In fact, Muniz’s string of bad luck dates back to the second half of the 2023 ARCA season, where multiple bad finishes relegated him from second (and a dark horse challenger for the championship) to fourth in the final standings.
Things have looked up for Muniz in 2025 — both in acting and racing. On the acting side, the TV sitcom Malcolm in the Middle, perhaps the most notable show Muniz is known for, is receiving a four-episode reboot that has already begun filming.
On the racing side, Muniz landed his full-time Truck Series ride with RBR, driving its flagship No. 33.
The season began on quite the high note for the 39-year-old, finishing a career-best 11th at Daytona. That got bumped up to 10th after race winner Parker Kligerman was disqualified. It was part of a double top 10 for RBR and looked to be the start of something special.
But since then, Muniz hasn’t had a better finish than 23rd. He crashed out at Atlanta Motor Speedway and remarked how he doesn’t get any respect on the track.
He was at the epicenter of controversy during the race at Bristol Motor Speedway after his involvement in a crash that took out Ty Majeski and Brandon Jones led to comments from them about lapped trucks needing to be “more predictable” in where they are on the track when being lapped.
Then, at Rockingham Speedway, Muniz salvaged a 23rd-place finish — his best since Daytona — after he had a power steering line burst at the end of the first stage. In a post-race interview with reporter Peter Stratta, Muniz proceeded to call himself “oddly cursed,” reflecting on the luck he’s had the last two seasons.
He’s not entirely wrong. To be clear, it was unreasonable to come into the season expecting to win races and contend for championships. Even with the improvements Reaume made over the past few seasons, it still isn’t a winning team yet. But even for the standards of the equipment he’s driving, Muniz couldn’t buy an ounce of good luck if he wanted to.
It certainly does become demoralizing to not get the finishes a driver feels they deserve, and Muniz has been feeling those effects. But Muniz has emphasized that the blame shouldn’t fall on his No. 33 team.
”I really, really love my team,” he said in an Instagram Live prior to Rockingham. “And they’re all working so hard. We need just a little bit of luck on our side to go our way.”
For as bad as the season has gone for Muniz, he still sits 24th in the point standings. While that is last of all the full-time drivers currently, he’s still holding pace in points. If he and RBR can get their luck turned around, they could find their way up the standings.
The 10th-place finish at Daytona proves that Muniz has the talent to be behind the wheel, and that RBR knows how to build trucks capable of running well. Muniz even said he might’ve had a top-15 truck at Rockingham had the power steering not burst and cost them nearly 20 laps.
Racing is all about momentum, and all the Agent Cody Banks star needs is one race to go his way like Daytona did. Then, who knows? Maybe it changes the course of his entire season.
Truckin’ Tidbits
- Carson Hocevar revealed on the Rockingham qualifying broadcast that he would drive four races in Spire Motorsports’ No. 7 this season, making his first truck starts since his last full-time season in 2023. Additionally, Nick Sanchez will return to the Truck Series for the next race at Texas Motor Speedway, driving Spire’s No. 07.
- Derek White told Frontstretch he will drive two races for Reaume Brothers Racing at North Wilkesboro Speedway and Nashville Superspeedway. White hasn’t made a Truck Series start since 2014, and was a co-owner of MBM Motorsports until his indefinite suspension from NASCAR in 2016 as a result of a tobacco-smuggling arrest. He was acquitted of one charge and was found guilty of the other before appealing and getting the verdict overturned.
- Justin Carroll continues to add races to his schedule with family-owned TC Motorsports. He told Frontstretch he plans to attempt four more races, with a few additional races to be finalized as well.
- Stewart Friesen seemed very unhappy with his own team after he crashed out of the Rockingham race, then gave a very poignant interview to FOX Sports, almost saying he would rather be dirt racing than Truck Series racing. With very little success in his Truck Series career (only amassing three wins), one has to wonder just how much more dirt racing he wants to give up for something he obviously isn’t into as much.
Anthony Damcott joined Frontstretch in March 2022. Currently, he is an editor and co-authors Fire on Fridays (Fridays); he is also the primary Truck Series reporter/writer and serves as an at-track reporter. He has also assisted with short track content and social media, among other duties he takes/has taken on for the site. In 2025, he became an official member of the National Motorsports Press Association. A proud West Virginia Wesleyan College alum from Akron, Ohio, Anthony is now a grad student. He is a theatre actor and fight coordinator in his free time.
You can keep up with Anthony by following @AnthonyDamcott on X.