Dale Earnhardt Jr. looks back fondly on good old days in NASCAR: “Love to hear it in full”
Dale Earnhardt Jr. reminisced about the good old days of watching the NASCAR Cup Series races at home, when announcers on the TV broadcast of the race would read out the entire starting line-up of drivers before the green flag of the race was waved. Dale Jr. specifically recalled the talent of Ken Squier, who was the announcer for CBS Sports for the Daytona 500 event. Squier would read out the entire starting line-up with music in the background, creating tension for the audiences and drivers, and building up the excitement before the start of the race.
The JR Motorsports team owner shared his fond memories on an X (formerly Twitter) thread, which was started by a fan asking Mike Joy, the current race announcer for Fox Sports, if he could read out the line-up during the broadcast instead of just the Top eight or 12 drivers. Joy replied, explaining that the practice was no longer in use because all the information usually read by broadcast announcers was available online, along with all the other statistics that they would read out in the old days.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. jumped on the same thread, taking a moment to call back to his days watching the Cup Series on TV:
"I still love to hear it in full. Ken reading the full Daytona 500 lineup with urgency with a music track underneath. It made you feel like every single driver barely made it into the field by the skin of their teeth and when the green drop all hell was gonna break loose."
Ken Squier was the lead announcer for the Daytona 500 from 1979 to 1997, 19 consecutive seasons and almost the entirety of Dale Earnhardt Sr.'s career in the Cup Series.
Squier passed away in 2023, five years after being inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame for his contributions to the sport.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. picks the 1979 Daytona 500 as the moment he would time travel to
In a recent episode of Bless Your 'Hardt, a podcast hosted by Dale Earnhardt Jr. and his wife Amy Earnhardt, the former Cup Series driver was asked which moment he would go back to for 24 hours if he had a time machine. Almost instantly, Earnhardt responded with his choice of the 1979 Daytona 500, the very same one that Ken Squier started announcing with:
"I'm going to the 1979 Daytona 500."
The 1979 running of 'The Great American Race' was the first ever live broadcast of the 500-mile NASCAR event, from flag-to-flag. With most of the country snowed in, the audience for the major race was at home, and Ken Squier's commentary helped boost the popularity of NASCAR on that day.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. 's team, JRM, participated in its first-ever Cup Series this season at the 2025 running of the Daytona 500.