The Dale Jr. Download - Bonus: Next Level w/ Ken Squier - Chapter 6: To Hell With It

Episode Date: January 20, 2023

After a thrilling start to NASCAR’s television career, how do you keep the momentum rolling?For starters, you need a field full of those 'don’t give a damn drivers' daring enough to put on a show at high speeds on high banks across America. Petty, Earnhardt, and Yarborough made names and careers out of their reputation on and off the track and were the product of Big Bill France’s dream to put on a series that was at the top of everybody’s minds.In chapter 6 of Next Level with Ken Squier, host Andrew Kurland and Squier discuss NASCAR in the ’80s and 90s. We learn what MRN's first office looked like, discuss whether or not racing is in the entertainment business, and hear more legendary Cale Yarborough stories.  Check out Dirty Mo Media on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DirtyMoMedia  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

What's going on, download fans? This is Alex Tim's. A brand new episode of Next Level with Andrew Curland is out now. Andrew sat down with legendary broadcaster Ken Squire to discuss his Hall of Fame career and much more. Make sure you go over to the Next Level podcast and hit subscribe so you never miss another episode. But now, without further ado, here's the brand new episode of Andrew Curland's next level conversation with Ken Squire. This is a production of Dirty Mode Media. Like a squad from the fighter planes through the slower stage. Oh, Bonnet almost getting pushed out.

Bonham comes to the inside in a slower car. Look at Bonnet, looking for wrong. He can't find it. He's in the box. He is caught. He moves into the middle. I don't give a damn. I'm going to do this because I love it.

And I may go to jail for a year and a day if I got caught running. But so be it. You take it. piece of metal and turned it into a race car. They knew what they had to get done. And if they didn't win, to hell with it. After a thrilling start to NASCAR's television career, how do you keep the momentum rolling?

For starters, you need a field full of those don't give a damn drivers daring enough to put on a show at high speeds on high banks across America. Petty, Earnhardt, and Yawboro made names and careers out of their reputation both on and off the track, and were the product of Big Bill France's dream to put on a series that was at the top of everybody's minds. The 80s and 90s were a special time of the sport. Ken Squire lived through it all.

Hello, everybody, and welcome to the next edition of Next Level. I am your host, Andrew Curland, and once again, we are back. with another one of our conversations with Ken Squire. And if you caught last week, the 1979 Daytona 500, we pick up right where that left off. And we talk all about the 80s and 90s of NASCAR. And if you haven't listened back to, I would say the last two episodes,

if not more, of next level, please go back and listen to it after this one because those are among my favorite moments. Not that this doesn't have those great moments, but those moments in those last couple of episodes were quite literally next level. So, but we've got another good one today, as I mentioned, NASCAR in the 80s and 90s, and we've got more Kale Yarborough stories.

Yeah, we pick up from a few episodes before. If you remember Susie the Bear, yeah, well, that wasn't the only animal, according to legend that Kail Yarbrough has run into. And I'm excited for you to hear that story from Ken. a lot of this episode, and you'll hear me frame it from the very start, is I wanted to know what it was like from someone who lived through it. I am 21 years old, as I mentioned the very beginning of what you'll hear of this conversation, and I didn't get a chance to live through an iconic era of NASCAR. What was it like with Earnhardt and Petty and Yarbrough in their prime? Ken Squire, in the best way possible, tells me what those drivers were like,

what the attitude was around the sport at the time in the best Squire way possible. And we got, as you heard in the introduction, we've got some pretty great quotes already out of this one. But in addition to those stories, we also learn about the first office at the Motor Racing Network, Ken Squire was there from the very beginning, and this actually came up a few times. As I mentioned, you know, before, you're hearing most of the conversation, but there were moments where we paused and took breaks and had to change batteries from the cameras and repositioned lighting and a bunch of production stuff, and that led to short, small moments of conversation off the air.

And Ken brought up his first office at MRN a few times, and it just, naturally came up in conversation. We finally got it. We finally got it when the tape was rolling. And it's one of my favorite stories out of the whole thing. It's very funny. It's comical. And it shows you how small of an operation NASCAR and the radio world around it really was not too terribly long ago. So this is another great one. I think Ken really paints a picture of what the spirit of the sport was back in that era. And I'm excited for everyone to listen to the next edition of Next Level with Ken Squar. I'll have to admit, I'm 21 years old. I never got to witness Petty Racing at his prime, Earnhardt Racing at his prime, these big names. What was the

NASCAR garage like back then? And paint me a picture of what NASCAR was like in the 80s and 90s? Well, as far as racing was concerned, Bill France made it the number of one item in people's minds, and he meant it, that it had to be number one. And all of a sudden, those guys came through. And for the most part, they were southeastern, because the agricultural part of racing, which is what it was, out of all those fears and all that stuff. In the case of the southeast, They made a product that they could identify with, which was outlaw. Yeah. That added to it.

And there was nothing outlaw about the petties. Some others, optional. And made it really great. So it had that spirit of America in it. I don't give a damn. I'm going to do this because I love it. And I may go to jail for a year and a day if I got caught running. But so be it.

Do you still think we see that outlaw spirit today? Not as much, no, no, because it's a different time. And now those that were called outlaws in those days are greatly respected is some of the best names in the business. Yeah. Because they took the risk. And they didn't have much else in their life to make up for that. And it was a happening within the United States.

And all of a sudden, Daytona had cars and good ones and strong dreams out of California. It wasn't any fancy foolishness among them. They knew what they had to get done. And if they didn't win, to hell with it. So they gave it all of that. And that's what you saw at Daytona. That meant everything. I mean, Kale Yarborough went to those races in the early days and he was first married.

and he talks about going to some track in South Carolina and they got up to pay a toll and he and his wife didn't have enough money together to pay for the toll and the guy let him go and forever because he then went out and won a race and it was part of what made Kali Arboral but they were right out of the American public

and they looked that way and they weren't putting on any airs. They didn't go to any colleges nor universities, most of them. And they meant what they drove. They just totally believed in racing. And you can't beat it when you have that kind of feeling in it. And no one understood that because it was a stunt show from most of America because they crashed cars.

And that was at the end of the era where stunt shows, stunt shows really ruled. You mentioned the stunt shows and the early days of racing cars at the fairs. And a lot of your job was to sell racing and make it entertaining and, you know, go ahead. Yeah, it was many times a super exaggeration. That's the word I was looking for. But it wasn't. Yeah.

I mean, it was real. People died. People cared that much. And they came back week after week, year after year, back with awful injuries. But they did it because it was their opportunity to shine at something and something they could do well. And a lot of people didn't want to do. Do you think racing is in the entertainment business? Of course it is.

Yeah, it is. So was the NBA and baseball and all of that. But there was a real reality in watching those stock car drivers, and particularly at that time. And you couldn't find a better representative than a petty, or Arboral, or the Alabama gang, all of whom gave everything they could to win. And there was no nonsense about people paying.

them and all that sort of thing. They earned their own way. And they, as much as anything, turned America on to what they really were. How do you go about selling racing to the heart of America? Like, take me through your job of trying to sell that to people who might not understand racing at the time. You sell the people. It's always the people. It's different now. And it's going to be different in the future because we've got another level of racers and they're beautiful, great kids. But many of them didn't come through the wars that the predecessors did. And in their case, you either won or you went home with nothing.

And there was not much you could do about that because there was so much desire to do it. You could take a piece of metal and turn it into a race car. That wasn't the case with Indy. It wasn't the case with sports cars. It wasn't the case of most anything. This was a home brew, and it was a darn good one. And people loved it, America. They understood it.

And they understood those people because they were their neighbors. And they showed numbers that we had never seen. scene in the history of motorsports. Well, that's not quite true because always there was a cadre of drivers. They were on the upper epistles. So you told their stories, story of Kale Yarbril. I mean, you couldn't find a better story to tell than Kale Yarbril, who, according to his mother, jumped off the porch one day and landed on an rattlesnake. Snake died. Oh my gosh.

And he was a stuntman of his own making. He would do things to make money, jump out of airplanes, parachuting with a parachute in his arms or in a Crisco can. And as he came down and got the thing opened up and land, but one time he was hired by a commuter, in North of South Carolina to jump at their special event. It worked beautifully except he landed five miles from where the event was.

Oh no. Yeah. And that was Kale Yarbrough. Kale was also an expert on snakes. And he was apt to bring them to the pit area. And some of those drivers did not appreciate that in the pit. And were chased out of the, he was chased around in the pit area. area because

because they had those imitation snakes yeah there wasn't a lot of that but there were some so he brought his own didn't go well at all I don't think that would go well at all but it was fun to him

and it was something he understood and got along with and he's still alive I think the story here is there's no containing Kale Yarborough there was no contain his mother who once said on CBS Yeah

Why do you do it Why do you do it And there was no answer that could explain why he did it But he liked to do it And if it hurt anybody He kind of considered it was going to hurt him But I don't think he considered that either That was just part of what he was

And it was that spirit that you couldn't capture many places. That was Daniel Boone back in the stock curve. And when he won Daytona, when he won all those races. And to me, Cali Yarbrough represented so much of the spirit that was in that story. And he had a wonderful wife who put up with him. And one time he was working for Holman Moody,

and they were living on the edge. And there was a sale on groceries. and the sale featured boxes of one was several boxes of peas. Taylor said we lived on peas, breakfast, lunch, and dinner for about a season. Because we could afford it. It was healthy. And the kids didn't have any problem with it. And that is the kind of spirit where you were willing to give up so much.

from what you thought was represented in this right. And he was right. We were talking about this before sitting down today about, I think race car drivers, you have to be half crazy to get in these race cars back then today. We talk about race car drivers being daredevils. Do you think you got to be crazy to jump into these race cars? No.

No? No. There was a whole part of that society that didn't have much of a chance of anything. And here it was something that they could manufacture themselves, build it in the backyard, and take it to the track and make it work. Those Woodbrothers, they made it work for themselves. I want to jump ahead to you starting MRN. How did that come about?

Bill France. Yep. he realized that what he needed when the story he had to tell needed something like a religion and religions on Sunday morning, particularly in the South, they could tell a story and they could get on the radio, they'd tell it like the Dickens.

And how was he going to do that? And he totally believed in it. The first Daytona 5th,000, 500. CBS did. And it was a replay kind of thing. And they brought their best announcer down. And he wasn't of the mold. And he was good. I mean, he's one of the best in television history, Walter Cronkite. Yeah. Bill was not impressed one bit. He wanted the real folks. And so after a while, he took the Daytona 500 out of the mix. And there were several, not several, two or three, racing network. Because for radio, it was magic. And a microphone and a way to get it on the air, you were in business. But you could paint these pictures, and you could paint the pictures in the manner that sometimes might have overemphasized things that weren't really what they were,

but they were when you saw them whizzing by, and you could make something of it that people cared about. winning the American way and American cars. And France bore into that, and he drove it like the Dickens. And we built that motor racing network in no time. We had three or four hundred races across the country. California was with a break-in because the southeast, that was recognized.

Every radio station that was trying to get people wanted those races. Other parts are like, well, even in New England, it wasn't that popular. But he had the product and how was he going to actually get it out and communicate what this was, radio. Yeah. What did your first office at MRN look like? Bill gave us an office

in the hallway right next to his office where he could keep track of things. And we were supposed to clarify, markets across the country. So we go in in the morning early and we'd work till nine o'clock at night because you could still talk to the California market, far west, till nine o'clock at night and get people in stations that we could make decisions and try to sell this image of what Belfrance saw. And that became the motor racing network. Does it count as an office if it's in the hallway? It was in the hallway.

Well, it was a beautiful office with a table and a Coca-Cola machine. Was it with a Coca-Cola? Yeah, Coca-Cola with the top that would slide back and forth. And that was the office for the original Motor Racing Network. But it was right next to Bill Francis' office, which told you he was really keeping track of it. Because he understood the importance and the consequence of selling America on that this is as good as what you have, which was what?

baseball was easy to do. This was more difficult. And so it kept a lot of people away. And in the southeast, there were guys that came out and started those networks. And Darlington had their own. Charlotte had their own. And it was there. So some of us who probably were probably prone to exaggeration were experts

represented for him. And it wasn't in any need of exaggeration. but it just needed people to paint the picture of what it was. And radio serves so well and still does to get that image across. And you could be driving anywhere on a Sunday afternoon in the south and you could hear a race. Well, there you have it. That was the next edition installment of our conversation with Ken Squire. And, you know, I asked him, do you think racing is in the entertainment business?

was one that I had circled when we had our meetings about what are we going to ask Ken and I think that is such an important question because I think the definition of it maybe has changed you know you look at where NASCAR is going and a lot argue that they're doing it for the sake of entertainment keeping the viewers and you wonder has it always been that case Ken Squire is a guy who has seen the sport from basically its inception through modern day. How has the entertainment aspect changed and is it part of the game? And, you know, I found it very interesting that without hesitation, he said, of course it is. So just more great insight, I feel like, that we got out of Ken Squire.

The Kali Arborough jumping on a snake story. I love that. And, you know, if it's true or not, I don't really care. because I think it's a great story of Kale Yarbrero, and I've enjoyed hearing what Ken had to say about him. Looking ahead, we're getting down to the thick of it, and Ken Squire's legacy, what does it mean to be in the NASCAR Hall of Fame? And I'll elaborate and give my thoughts on Ken's answer next week when you hear it,

but I think he answers it in a very Ken Squire way. We're going to hear more from David Hobbs, and David Hobbs has quite a funny behind-the-scenes story that happened to the two of them in the broadcast booth, and he kind of throws Ken under the bus in a fun way. But I gave David a hard time for revealing some of these secret stories about Ken, but it's all in good fun. And we close out with just some random stories that we hadn't gotten to yet. Ashley Squire's daughter was fantastic. in giving me little small anecdotes. Hey, make sure you ask him about this, ask him about that, and we start to check a few of those off the list.

So you'll just have to wait to next week to hear it in full. And we're going to start to push some of the video content out. And you can see these stories and Ken's facial expression and even just the scene in his house in Vermont. The background out the back window is beautiful. So we got more coming from next level. I appreciate everyone tuning in, as always, and listening to this. I'm thrilled with how this conversation turned out,

and we'll be back with more stories next week. Next Level is a production of Dirty Mo Media, hosted by myself, Andrew Curland, executive producers Mike Davis and Tiffany Powers. Artwork is by Sean Sen. Special thanks to Alex Tims and Jason Schultz. Broadcast audio is credited to CBS and 8. A.V.C. Check out Dirty MoMode Media on YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Dirty Mo!