HAMPTON, Ga. – Frankie Muniz is having the typical rookie experience as he races in NASCAR's truck series. The actor, involved in a wreck when he was in the middle of a three-wide situation (put your "Malcolm in the Middle" joke here), felt he got forced into Connor Mosack, who was in the high lane at Atlanta Motor Speedway. "I definitely don't get respect out there — 100 percent, nobody goes with me," Muniz said after taking the mandatory trip to the track medical center. "Someone put me three wide, pushed me up into the car that was on my outside, and we were out. "We were close to the top 10, which is a great showing for my team." Muniz, who finished 10th in the season opener last week at Daytona International Speedway, was running 11th at the time of the accident. With the early exit 29 laps before the finish, Muniz ended up 26th among the 32 cars. The 39-year-old Muniz drives for Reaume Brothers Racing, a team that doesn't have the funding of many of the top teams in the series. "I don't think anyone expects us to run there [in the top 10] so the fact [is good] that we were there on merit, no lucky breaks — we raced our way up there," Muniz said. "I'm obviously upset because I felt like we were just cruising; I was just trying to make it to the end because I knew we were going to be in a good position. "I'm hoping to earn respect out there, you know what I mean? And I hope, with how tight I was racing people and I was fairly clean the entire time, hopefully that will be the case. But until I keep doing it, it's going to be tough." Muniz was also upset that NASCAR felt his car was too damaged to continue. He said the car stalled on the track because the team was having an issue with its starter. "The only reason I needed to push it was because my starter went bad [earlier in the race]," Muniz said. "I stalled it because we had a puncture, and I spun. If I didn't stall, I would have got back to the pit lane. "We could have maybe fixed it and kept going and pass a few trucks. ... They told me, ‘You're done.'" Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR and IndyCar for FOX Sports. He has spent decades covering motorsports, including over 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @bobpockrass.Want great stories delivered right to your inbox? Create or log in to your FOX Sports account, and follow leagues, teams and players to receive a personalized newsletter daily!