Steve Waid, legendary reporter and stock-car storyteller, dies at 77

Steve Waid, an authoritative voice and storyteller in stock-car racing journalism across multiple eras of the sport, has died. He was 77. Waid's longtime colleague Rick Houston said that the veteran writer had died Monday afternoon after a lengthy battle with cancer. Waid was a recipient of the NASCAR Hall of Fame's Squier-Hall Award for NASCAR Media Excellence, and was elected as a member of the National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) Hall of Fame in 2014. "For decades, Steve Waid was one of the most respected and trusted voices in NASCAR journalism," NASCAR released in a statement. "He chronicled the sport with passion, integrity and an unmatched appreciation for its people, history and traditions. Through his work at NASCAR Scene, NASCAR Illustrated and several other outlets, Steve's storytelling helped generations of fans better understand NASCAR and the personalities who shaped it. Deservedly, Steve was recognized for his exemplary work in 2019 as the recipient of the NASCAR Hall of Fame's Squier-Hall Award for NASCAR Media Excellence, the culmination of a career that garnered him the admiration of competitors, industry members and fellow media professionals alike. NASCAR extends its deepest condolences to Steve's family, friends and longtime readers." Waid's career launched as a freshly minted Old Dominion University graduate in 1970, when he marched into the office of the Martinsville (Va.) Bulletin wearing a T-shirt and jeans to ask, "Do you guys need a sportswriter?" The answer was a yes from the paper's managing editor, Waid recalled to The Roanoke (Va.) Times in 2019, and he was hired in 20 minutes' time. Waid covered a variety of sports, but his brief Martinsville tenure quickly introduced him to activities at Martinsville Speedway during some of NASCAR's golden years. Longtime track public-relations director Dick Thompson helped Waid get his footing, and soon, he was accepted as a regular in the garage. Waid later spent a decade with the Roanoke Times & World News, covering the stock-car circuit during the season and the town's minor-league hockey team in the winter. In the early 1980s, he made a calculated risk with his career by joining Grand National Scene, then a fledgling outfit in Concord, North Carolina, with a circulation of about 9,000 readers. "I walked into what was the converted country store of an office," Waid told the Roanoke Times. "I had a metal desk, a chicken-wire in-basket and a Royal typewriter. That was my workspace, and I had left a newspaper with company cars, a marble building, expense accounts -- everything like that. I said, 'What the heck have I done?' " But the management at Scene made good on their promise of growth, and Waid was a key contributor to the publication's rise to a subscriber count that eventually reached six figures. If the sport was gospel, Scene served as the biblical texts -- impressively delivered weekly in an era when sports-news saturation was far from the rampant digital heights of today. Waid helped spread that gospel for nearly 30 years until his retirement from full-time reporting when Scene ceased publication in 2010. During that time, he served as NMPA president for 12 years and was honored with the association's George Cunningham Writer of the Year Award in 1989, the same year he received the American Motorsports Media Award of Excellence. He also co-authored -- with fellow legend Tom Higgins -- a brilliant biography about the life and career of Hall of Famer Junior Johnson in 1999. Waid was recognized as the eighth recipient of the NASCAR Hall's Squier-Hall Award in 2019. The previous summer, he was informed of his selection by NASCAR vice chairman Mike Helton. "I was so stunned that I asked him to repeat it, and he did!" Waid said. "It was almost overwhelming, you know? I've put 40 years into this, and a little bit more, and all I ever wanted to do was retire. But now this."