Frankie Muniz shares Dale Earnhardt Sr.’s impactful final message before fateful 2001 Daytona 500

The 2026 Daytona 500 marks the 25th anniversary of legendary NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt Sr.‘s final race. The man known as “The Intimidator” died during a fateful crash in the final turn of the 2001 Daytona 500 while attempting to help Dale Earnhardt Inc. drivers Michael Waltrip and son Dale Earnhardt Jr. finish 1-2 in the race.

Ahead of this year’s anniversary race, FOX Sports produced a documentary entitled “We’ve Lost Dale Earnhardt: 25 Years Later” that will feature rare footage of that somber day and first-hand accounts of the accident from those in attendance. That includes NASCAR Craftsman Truck driver and former child actor Frankie Muniz, who was 15 at the time and a passenger in the Daytona 500 pace car, during which he had a memorable pre-race interaction with the seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion.

“I don’t get nervous meeting people or I don’t get like star struck feeling, but he’s ‘The Intimidator,’ and I was intimidated,” Muniz said in the documentary, according to People. He even remembers being among the last to speak with Earnhardt Sr. before he got into his famous jet black No. 3 Cheverolet: “I was, besides his crew chief, probably one of the last people to talk to Dale Earnhardt the day he died.”

Muniz, who was the star of early 2000s FOX comedy Malcom in the Middle, told TMZ that the brief interaction with Earnhardt Sr. left an indelible mark on him — including helping spark his passion for stock car racing. Muniz was just 15 at the time and a budding Hollywood star in the second year of the show.

“‘He was extremely friendly to me, and I remember he said: ‘I have to say thank you to you … because your show has brought me and my daughter closer together,'” Muniz recalls in the documentary, per People. “He’s like, ‘It’s something that we turn on Sunday nights and we watch together.'”

But arguably Earnhardt’s most impactful words came just prior to Muniz’s trip around Daytona International Speedway in the pace car, especially given how that particular race ended.

“He literally said to me, ‘Hey, man, enjoy the ride. You never know when it’s going to end,’” Muniz told TMZ. “And I’ve always done everything with that mentality. Even as an actor, I tried to really just enjoy myself and knew that eventually, opportunity goes away.

“Going back into those moments made me realize the things he did say to me in the short time I got to talk to him right before the start of that race — it impacted every single thing I did as a person.”