Actor-turned-NASCAR driver Frankie Muniz will be back behind the wheel this week. However, there is a twist. It will not be in a stock car.
Muniz began in the ARCA Menards Series last season. Racing a full-time schedule, Muniz finished the year with 11 top-tens and a fifth-place finish at Michigan.
Muniz has not entered as many races this season. However, he has put together a single start for Reaume Brothers Racing in ARCA and his first three starts in the Craftsman Truck Series, including a debut 31st-place finish at Nashville.
The not-so-young driver also made his rookie start in the NASCAR Xfinity Series with Emerling-Gase Motorsports at Daytona, a 33rd place DVP finish, and a 30th place finish at Phoenix, a run ended early by a “vibration.”
While it is unknown if he will race in the Xfinity Series again this season, Muniz still has Kansas and Bristol on his truck schedule, which are both tracks he has raced at before.
Now Muniz looks to race outside of NASCAR, at a track he has never raced at.
This weekend Muniz is headed to Texas and Circuit of the Americas for the Mustang Challenge Series.
Operated by Ford Performance and sanctioned by IMSA, the Mustang Challenge Series is an open racing series for experienced drivers.
Muniz has yet to enter an IMSA-sanctioned event, though he has experience outside of NASCAR in Formula BMW and the ill-fated Champ Car Series’ developmental level.
The races consist of Mustang Dark Horse R racecars racing in 45-minute sprint races. This series is touring across the U.S. this year, including races at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Sebring.
This race could give Muniz some more time on Road Courses. He has only two road course starts in ARCA, with a best finish of sixth at Mid-Ohio last season.
Muniz will compete on Saturday in race one of the weekend’s two events and provide commentary on the second race on Sunday.
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NASCAR driver Kyle Busch took a light-hearted jab at NASCAR’s Next Gen car in response to fellow legend Dale Earnhardt Jr’s own pokes at the former Car of Tomorrow, in a social media exchange Thursday evening.
NASCAR fans know Kyle Busch for being one of the most outspoken drivers in the garage, with many of his most iconic moments coming from his criticism of the sport and his peers.
Even in his 22nd full-time season in the NASCAR Cup Series, the Las Vegas native is still willing to take shots at the sport’s shortcomings, though. In a recent thread on X, Busch joined forces with Dale Earnhardt Jr to go after two of the most controversial cars in Cup Series history.
Thursday afternoon, NASCAR journalist Kelly Crandall posted her frustrations with her current car to X, saying, “I cannot wait to get rid of this vehicle.”
In response, NASCAR Hall of Famer Dale Eanrhadt Jr chimmed in, comparing her issues with her personal vehicle to the NASCAR Car of Tomorrow, “Had a similar experience with the COT. Do not recommend.”
Of course, the COT is one of the most controversial cars in NASCAR history, with many drivers speaking out against the car from its 2007 part-time introduction, all the way to its technical end in 2012.
Kyle Busch was one of these drivers, with the future champion going after the car right after winning in its debut race at Bristol Motor Speedway in 2007, saying, “I cant stand to drive them they suck.”
While the COT had its own sordid and controversial history, the NASCAR Next Gen Car, used by the Cup Series since 2022, has had an embattled debut, with many issues ranging from non-traditional elements to producing poor on-track product.
That’s why, late Thursday afternoon, after seeing Earnhardt’s comments about the COT, Busch joined the thread, turning the attention to the Next Gen Car, telling Earnhardt:
“I’ve had a very similar experience with the Next Gen car. Do NOT recommend!” – Kyle Busch via X
Of course, this was a rather light-hearted jab at the car, and far from the worst review a driver has given in its short history, but nonetheless, much like Busch’s many heated comments of the past, this post got a roaring response from the NASCAR community.
Unfortunately for Busch, unlike the COT, which lasts just five full-time seasons, with the original design changing after three races in the 2010 season, it doesn’t seem that NASCAR is moving on from the radically changed design of the NASCAR Next Gen car anytime soon.
What do you think about this? Let us know your opinion on Discord or X. Don’t forget that you can also follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube.
Since its launch in 1985, the All-Star Race has been constantly evolving. While points races stay by the book, this event has long been NASCAR’s sandbox, a place to experiment with lap counts, formats, and changes without rocking the season. But this year’s shake-up has rubbed many fans the wrong way.
In 2024, the race doubled as a proving ground for tire compounds that wore at a faster clip, with an eye on whether such changes could carry over into points events.
Last year, the headline move was the “Promoter’s Caution,” built to bunch the pack and stop one driver from running away and hiding during long green-flag runs at North Wilkesboro Speedway. The goal was to keep the field within reach and keep fans hanging on every restart.
This year, though, the format feels like a whole new race altogether. First, NASCAR has axed the All-Star Open, then stretched the race distance at its new stop, tossing the old blueprint out the window. On top of that, every driver gets a seat at the table in the main segments. Every name on the entry list will start the first two segments. Once Segment 1 is over, a second 75-lap dash will follow, with Segment 2 turning the order on its head. The lineup will invert the top 26 from Segment 1, with the rest slotting in based on where they crossed the line.
Then comes the 200-lap final act, trimming the field to 26 drivers. That group will include 2025 and 2026 Cup race winners, past Cup champions running full-time, a Fan Vote pick, and the remaining spots filled by drivers with the lowest combined finishes across Segments 1 and 2.
Fans, however, are not exactly rolling out the red carpet for these changes.
Over on Reddit, die-hards have been letting it fly. When news broke that the race would stretch to 350 laps, one fan threw up his hands and wrote, “Who in the world thought it’d be a good idea to have a 350-lap long All-Star race? This should’ve just been another points race!”
Another cut straight to the bone, saying, “The all-star race has been in an identity crisis for a while now. NASCAR needs to rethink what the all-star race even is.”
Some zeroed in on the name itself. One fan quipped, “At this point, it isn’t much of an all-star race if it contains 65% of a full field,” while another added, “The name doesn’t even make sense anymore. How is it an “all-star” event if 26 cars are included in the final segment? That’s 72% of the chartered teams.” When nearly everyone gets a slice of the pie, the word “exclusive” tends to lose its punch.
One commenter zoomed out and took a broader swing: “There’s no need for an All Star event in a sport where the stars are out there with each other every week. It only has appeal in other sports because it’s an opportunity to watch stars play with each other when they are typically rivals. Even then, All Star events in other sports have lost their luster too.”
Another fan floated a theory that raised eyebrows, writing, “I’m genuinely convinced that NASCAR is trying to manufacture a reason to stop going to Dover altogether at this point. This format is a dumpster fire.” Whether that is smoke or fire remains up for debate, but it shows that for many, this format has struck a nerve with longtime fans.
It looks like the format for this year leans into what Dover Motor Speedway demands. Mike Tatoian, President and General Manager of Dover, pulled back the curtain on how the pieces fell into place, on the recent episode of PRN Live.
Mike Tatoian stated that when he and his team at Dover Motor Speedway found out they were getting the All-Star Race, they had one immediate issue. The track does not have lights. That means once the sun checks out, the race is over. No dramatic night finish. No overtime under the glow. Just daylight and a ticking clock.
Because of that, they needed the schedule to be tighter. Everything had to fit neatly into Sunday afternoon. There was no room for extra races stretching into the evening. So they told NASCAR what mattered most to them. First, announce the format early so fans and teams know what they’re dealing with. Second, make sure every driver gets to race on Sunday. No one sitting on the sidelines while others battle in a separate preliminary event.
That is why the All-Star Open race is gone. In past years, drivers who were not already locked into the main event had to race their way in through that extra race. At Dover, there simply is not enough time for that kind of setup. So instead of splitting the field, everyone starts on the track together when the green flag drops. From there, drivers get eliminated as the race goes on through the segment system.
In other words, everyone begins with a shot. As the day unfolds, the field gets trimmed down until only a smaller group remains for the final segment.
Tatoian also made clear that drivers who have already won Cup races still automatically qualify for the final portion. So past success still counts. That rule did not disappear.
So the track gave NASCAR its conditions of no lights, limited time, and a desire for the full field to race on Sunday. NASCAR then built a format around those rules. The result is a race that starts with everyone and slowly narrows down, all before the sun calls it a day.
NASCAR doesn’t operate in a vacuum, and with the NFL preparing for a massive new TV rights negotiation, the ripple effects could reach far beyond football. As billions more flood into pro football, the question becomes: where does that leave stock car racing when the next media deal comes around?
With executives like Steve O’Donnell already hinting that the schedule may not always stay at 36 races, the timing of the NFL’s next deal could dramatically impact NASCAR’s leverage heading into its own future negotiations. More money at the top of the sports world doesn’t always trickle down — sometimes it pulls the ladder up.
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