‘This is What Killed Dale Earnhardt’: NASCAR Fans React After Frankie Muniz’s Daytona 500 Picture Resurfaces

It was a dark day in motorsport that changed NASCAR forever. Dale Earnhardt’s death during the 2001 Daytona 500, following the last-lap crash between him, Ken Schrader, and Sterling Marlin, remains a shock even after so many years. As fate would have it, there was another link that connected the three drivers that day — Frankie Muniz. Even the mention of this connection, which came up on social media recently, triggered a barrage of emotions from fans.

A Craftsman Truck Series driver now, Muniz was a child TV star back then, playing the main role in the sitcom, Malcolm in the Middle. He was at Daytona as a guest of FOX Sports. And, he had the privilege of riding around the track during the pace laps in the Pontiac Aztek, the pace car for the big event.

A picture of the bright red car resurfaced on X recently. The post stated how Muniz was in the car during the 2001 race. Fans quickly recalled the ominous core memory that the race and anything associated with it represents for them.

One fan commented, “This is what killed Dale [Earnhardt].” Another said, “For the first 499 miles, this was the biggest tragedy of the 2001 Daytona 500.” One more joined in, “That was the worst thing to happen in that race.”

Amid the clamor, one fan noted how Muniz now holds a huge honor over two decades later. “Wouldn’t that make him the only active driver in the NASCAR top three series to have been on track at the same time as Dale Sr.?” He wrote.

The connection with the three involved in the fateful crash runs deeper than Muniz riding shotgun in the pace car during the event.

The jacket that Muniz got signed by the three drivers

Before the race, Muniz wore a #36 M&M’s Pontiac Jacket in support of Schrader. He had that jacket signed by Earnhardt, Schrader, and Marlin before the green flag was waved. Imagine the sheer magnitude of this connection. Muniz remembers vividly the moments of the race he witnessed from inside Schrader’s pit box.

“I had never cried that hard in my life,” Muniz said once, recalling his reaction to the news of Earnhardt’s death.

Another core memory that he has is the conversation he had with Earnhardt. The Intimidator had told him in the pit road that Malcolm in the Middle had made him closer to his daughter. Understandably, he was on top of the world with a compliment from the biggest name in NASCAR history.

After the 2001 Daytona 500, Muniz had a busy and successful acting career before returning to the race tracks as a driver. He joined Rette Jones Racing to drive in the ARCA Menards Series in 2023, where things came full circle for him. The chassis that Marlin drove when he crashed with Earnhardt and Schrader was the same one that Muniz got to race.

The connections are mindblowing indeed. The actor-turned-driver remains the one link on the track that connects the present to that fateful edition of the Great American Race.