Legendary NASCAR announcer Ken Squier reflects on career with Kyle Petty | Part 1 | Coffee with Kyle

[Music] I will first it is an honor and a pleasure to be here with you ken Squier because we're at the headquarters of WD evey Radio Free Vermont that's it that's it it is an honor today race cars capable of over 200 miles per hour take on a far more romantic image this track more than any other track is fun we're here at Brooklyn Michigan this afternoon I'm Ken Squier 41 drivers aligned up for this the most prestigious stock car race in the world fight the tempers over Floyd this place when I come in it's been in your family for how many years well dad 1930 we'll go back on that yeah we'll go back to that in a minute this place reminds me of the race shop that I grew up in level cross feels a little bit like car it really does it really does when I walked in because it's just so eclectic the way that you need that's a kind word that's a kind word yeah and so and I want to get into that before we start anything else the lexicon the words you brought to this fort I got a list here oh this is bad yeah these are ordinary people doing extraordinary things common men doing uncommon things the radom deeds the the great American race I like you can correct me on anything okay great American race that the Alabama I mean so many things that you brought to what is now the next NASCAR lexicon where did that come from where did you learn that word lexicon it was written down on this piece I saw someone other than me well well resume ibly because you know my dad was a it was in the newspaper but course it was a weekly paper here the Waterbury record about 1930 was when mr. white Hill who won't have said Lloyd more people can here then can read I think we ought to look at radio and here we are so that was nineteen thirty thirty-one yes is when you're when you're dead when the radio station came along you started early on radio what was your progression and I read where you called a race from the back foot of an old truck radio that all the race excuse me that that was the judges stand oh the judges see I was a lumber truck okay and it was in Morrisville Vermont and in those days well there were 23 tracks in Broome I was just like the Carolinas and the and it became a battle of the north-south the northern drivers that would be berry Vermont all of those granted workers and then the south was the rest of the state it didn't last long we had a riot there about the second month between the north and the south and the races ran so long in those days that the cops all went home they were gone by six and by eight you know what's getting towards sunset and they got in a heck of a fight and the Morrisville speedway disappeared and they needed an announcer and i think and i got three or five dollars or whatever I was fifteen that's pretty much as where it began well no that isn't true my dad was a harness race guy and so we did all the country fairs okay then the big fairs would have a sprint car race or a [ __ ] race a couple of superstars from the Indy field and then there'd be a bunch of ham and eggs that would run against them and that was where I decided that I would spend the rest of my life god I love those cars and had to find a way to do it did you ever try driving oh yeah oh and try is a good word yeah I tried I tried for a number of years well you did a Methodist job I got halfway there yeah yes what was I mean what did you do how much racing did you do a year or two then I got caught mother was not thrilled at all knew I'd get my teeth and knocked out which I did and that sort of changed things a bit but because he was a announcer of standardbred horse racing I got to hang around in the judges stand and Chris economy showed up and that was in the midst of World War Two it's just after World War Two yep so your basis when you started calling motor sports was really based in what your father had done that's that's fascinating to me I learned so much from being around my grandfather from being around my father and one day I woke up and I was like I know that it's not that I thought I didn't know I was learning yeah I mean is that you know you don't know you're learning but one day you start doing what you do and it's like oh yeah I've heard my grandfather talk about this so I heard my dad and this is what you do in this situation is that where you picked up the style of calling the verbage of what you use to describe what was going on the racetrack I think a lot of it came off the Midway okay because what you did if you work those shows in the early days was you sold the show yeah economy became the singular voice I was fascinated by him mr. Khanna Maki you've always been close to racing but you know this is a bit ridiculous what's your a ki a everyone always wants to drive the winning car Darlington now I finally done it he really understood it and he too started out to be a driver I think he ran one race while I was in high school and everybody had a car alleged and I was in malice babe remind and I thought that I was the next Indianapolis Star and I'd run a couple of heats and a guy in a 6-cylinder Plymouth I went down into turn one and I knew that no one had ever surpassed what I was doing in that corner and this guy pulled up along beside and waved and then went on I said well maybe I got a rethink 19:50 you were 15 with each passing year did motorsports become a bigger part of who ken Squier was oh yeah and I began to define what it was that was unique and special about this that I couldn't find in any kind of school sports etc didn't work for me but the first time you heard one of those sprint cars come down the main straightaway and the guy lifted crank the wheel the wrong way and power slipped through that corner that was something unique and special and how you encapsulated that and convinced people that were watching that this was more than just people running around in circles so each year Ken Squier became more and more of what auto racing was especially in this area and 6061 right along there you start Thunder Road you're 25 years old yeah and now now you have a track yeah well it was that business of I really thought that I knew what I was doing of course I didn't yeah but there were three or four of us and and we built a high bank quarter-mile asphalt and heretofore in a place like Vermont so that was the growth of the whole sport and it was packing the men and and that's what it did all over the nation Thunder Valley was only the second asphalt track Thunder Road Thunder Road scuse me was only National speedball International ayah talk Quarry Hill still operate still operate still operate and and and I tell people Thunder Road may be the most famous racetrack that everybody knows about because of ken Squier kind of you to say that I had questioned the validity you know it's it's valid it's valor I'll buy it is valid quarter mile high banked who were the stars there when you started oh oh let's see well by that time the north/south battle had evaporated and and very ver mind which is the granted capital of the world and all of those folks that worked in those quarries that was their game so the flying Frenchman Norman shaloo the Ingerson brothers from North Abril New Hampshire gave it an international flavor you know over the Connecticut River in roll over Farnsworth and it was alleged that he rolled it over something like 30 times in a year and Chester T Woods T four tops he had a tractor seat just the seat part nothing in the back and he was the average everyday all-american guy that didn't have a lot of money but he had a lot of ingenuity and a crate deal of courage and had survived the war and he was ready for more again I mean I'm gonna jump forward a little bit because I'm wondering how you found your way down south how'd you end up in Daytona Beach made captain did you just show up and knock on the door or had bill France been up here and Bob Saul had been up okay that's my question you know he was one of the big stars of the Nutley velodrome back in the thirties so I got a chance to go down there and work one year I think was 64 voila here we are no way and big bill was big on announcers he really wanted somebody to sell the show which was different than most of the announcing that was done and still is gets into all this technical stuff and who cares but what they wanted were heroes American heroes and in the world war two the genuine deal came home from the Pacific in the Atlantic and they were our neighbors and they didn't have a pot either but they built race cars and they went out and played and they loved it but it's part of what really was the fundamental basis for what Bill France put together and convinced America that we had a new major league sport Tim meet bill France president of NASCAR it's nice to meet celebrities but the only sights Tim really wants to see your automobiles well almost the only sights so you ended up in Daytona 64 yeah yeah yeah right along in there the first race you called who were the guys in and the race for sure in a that period of time yeah the Petty's and they were the others it was fireball there was Marvin Panch that came over from California what a super guy and and the last American hero jr. Johnson and they all contributed something in each one in a different manner the Green is about to be unfurled once again on the most competitive automobile racing in the world but then in the late 60s 69 right along and their motor racing Network comes about yeah and they tell a dega came along Talladega came along Talladega was Talladega was that era was a big era and and Talladega was what really changed the restraints were off it was faster than Daytona scaring it you and they talk were you in Talladega when the drivers all walked out when future historians write about the wonders of the world save at least one chapter for this the world's fastest Motor Speedway the Alabama International Motor Speedway here at Talladega Alabama this paste is the fastest racetrack we've got this is a different race track is different than the Nina where in the world it's a countable racetrack that there's really nothing but speed here there was a lot of frightened race drivers they were snapping off wheels a lot of them said no thanks I think it was Leroy Yarborough that said mr. France I owe you everything I've got when I'm not going to die for you that that was a general thought meanwhile there were all these talks about new groups that were being fostered to build racetracks all over the superspeedways and Darlington had been an experience for a long time there's something about the design something about the aura of Darlington that causes spectacular action but a lot of promoters saw this as the next step to have a super speedway and France was willing to back up the motor racing Network and there I was down there we had a we had an office in Daytona which was the top of a Pepsi Cola cooler with one telephone and I was all for that I mean I really thought that there was a piece of this that was bigger than just the stock cars running around and it broke away from all of organized sport as we knew it I'll go to that for a minute you touched on it there in the southeast we didn't have sports teams we didn't have the NBA the NFL or you had called it football we had college football at that time motor racing Network brought those local heroes to more of a national audience how much time did you spend at each racetrack during that period of time as much as I could yeah because I found the people were so fascinating and they were so honest all of them particularly in your family or fearless Freddy Lorenzen for nothing Elmhurst Illinois and those guys they all got out there together and they laid it all on the line and the society in some ways would make a freakshow out of what they thought racing was and they missed the point entirely that people could care that much fascinating that today as racing as hit a tipping point and we're deciding where we're going to go and what we're going to do fascinating that now there's a whole new attitude and I questioned that's what we want to do because that kind of character is disappearing and it is couched in all kinds of language that doesn't mean much that's a story unto itself yeah why would you want to do something that you know darn well could turn around right you could kill you I never want to do anything else why if I morning and read in my record hey NASCAR fans thanks for checking out the NBC sports youtube channel make sure you hit subscribe below for the latest NASCAR news race highlights and digital exclusives thanks for watching