NHOF 2018: Ken Squier

Ken Squier, the name says it all. When you’d turn on the tv during the 80’s and 90’s, Ken Squier’s voice would fill up your room giving you the sense he was talking to you.

Squier played a vital role on getting CBS to televise live coverage of the 1979 Daytona 500. The rest is history. The final lap of the race when Cale Yarbrough and Bobby Allison beat and bang which led to them ultimately wrecking and Richard Petty would go onto to win the race. But it was probably what happened after the race that got everyones attention. Those four famous words, “And there’s a fight” would not only cornerstone Squier’s career but also reel in audiences from around the world into NASCAR.

Squier spoke with NASCAR.com’s Holly Cain on what it meat to finally have CBS in the motorsports world.

“Having them, CBS, take an interest in it. … we did a group of races before we ever did the Daytona 500 and they did so well. It was like everything the network did in those days. They spent the time, spent the energy, forethought to really put together what it was about.

Squier would go onto announce for CBS and TBS until 1997 before going into Studio Hosts for NASCAR.

Squier continues to enlighten fans around the globe today and next time your’e at any Northern automobile race or NASCAR race and happen to hear a northern voice, it’s more than likely Ken Squier.

 

Matthew Jackson
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