Legendary NASCAR broadcaster Ken Squier passed away at the age of 88, NASCAR announced Thursday on Twitter.
Squier, a longtime broadcaster and owner of his local radio station WDEV in Vermont, was the first and only journalist inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame, according to the VT Digger.
The NASCAR family mourns the loss of legendary broadcaster Ken Squier, who passed away at the age of 88.
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) November 16, 2023
He was the inaugural recipient of the Squier-Hall Award for Media Excellence, an award named after him, according to the Hall of Fame’s executive director Winston Kelley.
“While perhaps best known for his memorable last lap and postrace descriptions of the 1979 Daytona 500, he had the incomparable ability to so effectively articulate the human side of all NASCAR competitors,” Kelley said. (RELATED: Former NASCAR Star Kevin Harvick Purchases ‘Ricky Bobby’ Estate For $6.75 Million)
“Among his signature phrases, used at just the right time, was ‘common men doing uncommon things’ which helped audiences and we mere mortals understand the unique skills, risks and gravity of manhandling a 3,400 pound racecar at speeds in excess of 200 mph with 39 other snarling competitors entrenched around one another.” Kelley added.
Many, including one of the sport’s most recognizable stars, credit Squier’s 1979 Daytona broadcast with elevating the sport to national recognition.
“Ken Squier was there when Nascar was introduced to the rest of the world in 1979 for the Daytona 500,” Dale Earnhardt Jr. tweeted. “I’m convinced that race would have not had its lasting impact had Ken not been our lead narrator. We still ride the wave of that momentum created on that day. Ken’s words and energy were perfection on a day when Nascar needed it. I am forever grateful for his major role in growing stock car racing. RIP,” his fellow Hall of Fame inductee concluded.
Besides owning and operating WDEV, Squier also founded the Motor Racing Network and the Thunder Road Speedbowl, a hilltop racetrack he built in Barre, Vermont in 1960, according to the VT Digger.
Squier was so widely beloved even Vermont’s Governor Phil Scott tweeted, “Ken was always looking for opportunities to give back and help those in need. He instilled those values as the backbone of Radio Vermont, which has been an essential part of the fabric of Vermont since its creation – always finding new ways to support more and more Vermonters.”