UPDATE (11-24-2020): Motor Racing Network’s Dave Moody has tweeted that Ken Squier’s doctors now expect him to recover from the novel coronavirus.
“After a challenging few days, the doctors now say they expect him to beat this,” Moody said in his update Tuesday morning.
“He is still very weak, but getting wonderful care. Keep those prayers coming, friends. They’re working.”
Squier was recently moved from home to Copley Hospital in Morrisville, Vermont to receive better care.
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Legendary NASCAR announcer Ken Squier confirmed that he’s tested positive for the novel coronavirus.
The 85-year-old Squier, who was inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame in 2018, made the announcement Thursday on WDEV, the radio station he owns in Waterbury, Vermont.
He also asked his listeners to remain vigilant about protecting themselves from the virus.
According to the Barre-Montpelier (Vt.) Times Argus, Squier is currently resting at the family home in Stowe, Vermont.
His daughter, Ashley Squier, told the newspaper that he had been following all health precautions, including wearing a mask, washing hands, and remaining socially distanced.
Ashley also said that her father knows he contracted the coronavirus from someone that didn’t show any symptoms; that person came in contact with another person who eventually tested positive for COVID-19. Her father had not shown any symptoms himself.
Ken Squier is a key figure in NASCAR’s transition to the national stage on radio and television. He is a co-founder of the Motor Racing Network, served as a pit reporter for the sport’s first live ‘flag-to-flag’ television broadcast (1971 Greenville 200), and was the voice for CBS at the seminal 1979 Daytona 500.
Squier remained a lap-by-lap commentator through 1997, before moving into a hosting role for NASCAR broadcasts through 2000.
In his home state, he is also known as a broadcasting icon and as the founder of Thunder Road International Speedbowl, a quarter-mile track in Barre, Vermont.
He built the track in 1960 and owned it for many years before he and the late Tom Curley sold it in April of 2017.