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Actor Frankie Muniz of Malcolm in the Middle fame is a big time auto racing fan.
Actually, scratch that. He’s more than a fan. He’s a racer himself.
The now 37-year-old Muniz has been racing off and on since 2004 and announced he is going to run a full schedule in the ARCA Menards Series in 2023.
That passion for the sport, combined with his becoming famous at such a young age, has allowed him to experience things most racing fans only dream about experiencing.
One of those things occurred when he was attending the 2001 Daytona 500 and it involved the late NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt.
The then 15-year-old Muniz was in the midst of his run playing the lead role on Malcolm in the Middle when he was shocked by the Man in Black at the drivers’ meeting before the race. (He was driving the pace car that does the parade laps before the race begins that year.)
“Dale Earnhardt, he came up to me at the drivers meeting actually, and he told me, ‘I just have to say, I’m a huge fan, your show has brought me and my daughter so much closer,’” Muniz told the show Speed Freaks this week. “I was like 15 at the time, the hugest NASCAR fan, and I was like in awe that a hero of mine was saying that they were a fan of mine. And when everyone was climbing in their cars he stopped me again and shook my hand and said, ‘Man I love your show, I love your show.’ Then he got in the car.”
Muniz added that he was in Kenny Schrader’s pit for the actual race and he gave him an M&M’s jacket that Muniz ended up getting three signatures on: Kenny Schrader, Sterling Marlin and Dale Earnhardt.
As any diehard NASCAR fan will recall, the three cars that were involved in the crash that killed the seven-time champion were Kenny Schrader, Sterling Marlin and Dale Earnhardt.
On top of that, the chassis for the car he just drove was the same one Sterling Marlin used in that very race.
“I don’t want to say it creeped me out, it was a little eerie to think about when you put all those pieces together, but it made me actually feel like I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be in my life,” Muniz said. “What I mean, the fact that really one of my first NASCAR experiences was that that race in person and that now my first NASCAR ARCA experience as a race car driver is in that same car is pretty, I don’t know kind of a crazy story, pretty remarkable to me.”
I think Muniz would have been excused if he did find that to be a little creepy, because it is.