Ken Squier 1935 – 2023

Ken Squier, one of the vital recognizable and trusted voices of NASCAR broadcasting, died on Wednesday. He was 88.

“Although he by no means sat behind the wheel of a inventory automotive, Ken Squier contributed to the expansion of NASCAR as a lot as any competitor,” NASCAR chairman and CEO Jim France stated. “Ken was an excellent storyteller and his unmistakable voice is the soundtrack to a lot of NASCAR’s best moments. His calls on TV and radio introduced followers nearer to the game, and for that he was a fan favourite.

“Ken knew no strangers, and he will probably be missed by all. On behalf of the France household and all of NASCAR, I provide my condolences to the household and buddies of Ken Squier.”

Squier labored with the Motor Racing Community (MRN), which he co-founded, through the Seventies. Considered one of his most iconic calls was the 1979 Daytona 500, when he began calling the battle for the win between Donnie Allison and Cale Yarborough, which ended with each vehicles crashing in Flip 3.

Regardless of the last-lap drama and having to maneuver from one narrative to a different, Squier by no means missed a beat. Probably the most memorable a part of the decision was exclaiming, “And there’s a battle,” when the cameras caught the scuffle between Yarborough and Donnie and Bobby Allison.

Squier additionally coined the phrase “The Nice American Race” for the Daytona 500.

All through his illustrious profession, Squier known as races for MRN, CBS, and TBS by way of 1997. He then grew to become a number till 2000. However even after that, he was by no means removed from racing and was introduced again to do segments of the Southern 500 for NBC Sports activities in 2015, and once more over the previous few years.

Squier’s broadcasting profession began at his father’s radio station, WDEV, in his native Vermont. In 1960, he opened Thunder Street Speedway in his house state.

In 2013, the NASCAR Corridor of Fame launched the Squier-Corridor Award for NASCAR media excellence, named after Squier and fellow broadcast Barney Corridor. Squier was inducted into the NASCAR Corridor of Fame in 2018.

“Ken’s contributions to and accomplishments in NASCAR are incalculable,” Winston Kelley, the manager director of the NASCAR Corridor of Fame, stated.

“The breadth and depth of his legacy can’t be overstated. Demonstrations of this vary from co-founding Motor Racing Community with NASCAR Founder Invoice France, Sr.; to convincing CBS executives to televise what grew to become one among NASCAR’s most pivotal moments within the 1979 Daytona 500 as NASCAR’s first nationally-televised race flag-to-flag; to his iconic calls and commentary for greater than seven many years on each radio and tv; to being arguably the perfect storyteller in our sport’s historical past to proudly owning and selling the famend Thunder Street Worldwide Speedbowl in Vermont for 57 years. There’s little in NASCAR that Ken Squier didn’t impression.

“Whereas maybe greatest recognized for his memorable final lap and postrace descriptions of the 1979 Daytona 500, he had the incomparable capacity to so successfully articulate the human aspect of all NASCAR rivals. Amongst his signature phrases, used at simply the best time, was ‘frequent males doing unusual issues,’ which helped audiences and we mere mortals perceive the distinctive expertise, dangers and gravity of manhandling a 3,400-pound racecar at speeds in extra of 200 mph with 39 different snarling rivals entrenched round each other.

“Whether or not you had the pleasure to satisfy him or not, race followers felt like they knew him. He was trusted and revered within the storage space simply as a lot as he was relied on by tens of millions of followers to cowl the motion on the monitor and tales off the monitor.”