OBIT: Steve Waid, one of the most accomplished print journalists to ever step foot in a NASCAR media center, died Monday, June 15 after a long and hard-fought battle with the aftereffects of cancer.
Stephan Hamilton Waid was born October 6, 1948 in Richmond, Virginia.
Steve was an Army brat who lived in Puerto Rico, Japan, Pittsburgh, and Arizona during his childhood. Upon his dad’s retirement from the military, the family settled in Virginia Beach, Virginia.
He graduated from Old Dominion University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science and government in 1970. Married to his college sweetheart Margaret later the same year, Steve was a member of the United States Marine Corps reserves.
Upon learning of a job opportunity at the Martinsville (Va.) Bulletin, Steve began working as a sportswriter for the small town newspaper.
Steve covered his first NASCAR event at Martinsville Speedway in the fall of 1971, a race won by future NASCAR Hall of Famer Bobby Isaac, and the sport has been a part of his DNA ever since. After a year at the Martinsville paper, Steve landed at The Roanoke Times for a decade.
While still with The Times, Steve began freelancing for the publication then known as Grand National Scene in 1978. Named Scene’s executive editor in May 1981, he would contribute approximately 2,700 bylines and roughly 1.5-2 million words to the paper over the next 28 years.
Steve’s full-time tenure at Scene began in the most humble of circumstances.
“Coming from Roanoke, we had a nice, new, modern building and we were working on computers,” Steve said on The Scene Vault Podcast. “My first day with Grand National Scene, I walked into an old converted country store. I had one of these metal desks, one of these old-time Royal typewriters and a chicken-wire inbox. That’s it.”
The publication grew from 9,000 paid subscribers at the time of his hiring to approximately 150,000 at the height of its popularity in the early 2000s. Renamed Winston Cup Scene in August 1989 and NASCAR Scene at the start of the 2004 season, the newspaper’s skyrocketing success mirrored NASCAR’s.
“We had latched ourselves to a star,” Waid said. “As the sport grew, we were able to grow. As we grew, we never neglected what we needed to do for ourselves. If we needed equipment, we were able to get it. Most importantly, we were able to get quality people.
“That’s what set us apart from the other trade papers of the day. We targeted and got people who had already established themselves either in the sport or with their talent and we were able to bring them on board. The quality of the Scene staff always was high. That was a significant factor in the growth and the popularity of the newspaper.”
Over the course of his career, Steve received virtually every conceivable individual award and recognition the industry had to offer. He served as president of the National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) for twelve years, during which time his banquet speeches and skits became the stuff of what sometimes he and only he determined to be comedic legend.
His distinguished career also included:
- The George Cunningham Award for NMPA Writer of the Year
- The Henry T. McLemore Award for outstanding lifetime contributions to motorsports
- NMPA Hall of Fame, 2014
- Squier-Hall Award for NASCAR Media Excellence, 2018
Steve’s innate sense of style was clearly evident in his writing, but every bit as important was his relationship with competitors throughout the NASCAR community and in the uppermost levels of management.
“We could be friends, but we had jobs to do,” Waid said. “Back in those days, I cannot impress upon you enough how much that type of relationship existed among media members and selected drivers. The race drivers themselves and the team owners, they respected the honest journalists … the guys who were fair.
“When there was a controversy, you not only printed one side of the story, you printed the other. They understood that, so they were never really afraid or worried to be talking to you.”
When Steve first moved to North Carolina, Dale Earnhardt – fresh off the first Winston Cup championship of his legendary career – offered the man he’d nicknamed “Wages” a place to stay in his own home.
Steve declined due to his code of ethics as a journalist. As it was, Steve covered the first race of Earnhardt’s Winston Cup career to his last and every high and low point in between.
The same can be said of countless NASCAR personalities.
Steve forged strong personal relationships with numerous competitors who would go on to be enshrined in the NASCAR Hall of Fame, as well as with those who struggled to make it from one race to the next.
It was with 1992 Winston Cup champion Alan Kulwicki that Waid enjoyed what was likely his closest driver friendship.
“Alan seemed strange to everybody in the garage area,” Steve said. “Nobody took a briefcase to the race track, for example. Everybody said, ‘There’s no way this kid is going to make it running his own team.’ I sort of agreed with that, but I was just going to see how far it went.
“After a while, I forgot about watching him trying to make it, as opposed to being his friend. When I say friend … it was beyond the usual race track association. I went to his place and, several times, he came to mine. He even let my wife borrow his racing uniform for Halloween.”
Steve’s column following Kulwicki’s death in an April 1, 1993 plane crash is one of the most heart-felt pieces to ever appear in Scene or any other publication.
“I can’t count how many times we just ‘hung out,’” Steve wrote in an open letter to Kulwicki that was published in the April 15, 1993 issue of Winston Cup Scene. “Dinner here; comedy club there, lounge over there, my house, your house … all it took was a phone call. One of us would dial the other and simply say, ‘Whattya doin’? And another adventure would begin.”
Preceded in death by Earnhardt, Kulwicki and far too many other friends from the NASCAR community, Steve’s two closest friends in the sport also went before him to prepare the way.
Tom “Pappy” Higgins, the longtime NASCAR and outdoors writer for The Charlotte (N.C.) Observer, first took Steve under his sizable wing the weekend of the 1976 Southern 500 at Darlington.
It all began when Steve helped Higgins get up to speed on a breaking news story.
“I saw him come in the media center,” Steve remembered. “I knew who he was, of course, but I had never spoken to him. So I came up, introduced myself and I gave him my story, my notes and everything else. I said, ‘This will help you catch up to what everybody is doing.’ Tom thanked me, but I didn’t have a chance to speak to him the rest of the day.
“That night, I was in my cheap motel room and there came a knock on the door. I opened the door and there stood Tom Higgins. How he found me, I don’t know, but he stood there … looked at me … pointed … and said, ‘You are riding with me.’ We rode together for the next 25 years.”
Joe Whitlock, who served in a multitude of roles during his time in NASCAR, died in May 1991. Steve’s tribute in the May 9, 1991 issue of Winston Cup Scene was also a masterpiece written in the form of a letter to his late friend.
“Joe, whenever you said, ‘Come over for dinner,’ you weren’t kidding, were you,” Steve wrote. “I’d show up and there would be an army of good folks on hand. And there you would be – over the grill, the stove, the smoker, whatever – cooking ribs, steaks, a chicken bog or some stew with stuff I couldn’t recognize. … You said you did it because you like to see people enjoying a good meal.
“Heck, Joe, when you were around we enjoyed everything. Sure, there were the serious moments and we would talk about problems. There were some tough ones. But we always ended the talks with a laugh and a hearty handshake. We even hugged more than once.”
Steve retired shortly after Scene ceased publication in January 2010, but his presence in NASCAR journalism remains strong to this day.
A columnist for Frontstretch.com, Steve and former Scene staffer Rick Houston met in January 2018 to discuss preservation of the complete Scene archive. The meeting rekindled their working relationship that summer as co-hosts of The Scene Vault Podcast, a weekly show devoted to NASCAR history that recently topped the 400-episode mark.
“Steve and I might have been on the same editorial staff during my time at Scene, but he was in upper, upper management and I just felt lucky to be there,” Rick said. “Honestly, back then, I couldn’t really say I knew Steve personally.
“Today, after working together for the past eight years on The Scene Vault Podcast, I trust Steve as one of my best friends and confidantes. His steadfast encouragement has, quite literally, kept me going and pushed me more forward more times than I could possibly ever count.”
Steve is survived by his wife Margaret, and their children, Celeste and Andrew; and his brother, Dr. Lewis Randolph Waid of Mount Pleasant, S.C.
In lieu of flowers, consider contributions to either Atrium Health Cancer Institute or Victory Junction.
AND: On behalf of the National Motorsports Press Association, I offer our sincere condolences to the family and friends of longtime racing journalist and one of the sport’s most celebrated writers, Steve Waid, 77, who passed away today in North Carolina after a lengthy illness.
A mainstay in racetrack pressrooms for decades, the Old Dominion University graduate started his career for the smalltown Martinsville (Va.) Bulletin in his home state and that marked the beginning of an amazing and long-standing tenure covering the sport and people he loved dearly.
Although he worked at other newspapers throughout the Southeast, Waid’s longest tenure – 28 years – came as Editor in Chief of the Grand National Scene. His commentary and coverage for the sport’s most popular publication was a must-read for everyone – fan and racer alike – and made him one of the most influential reporters the sport has ever seen. He served 12 years in multiple terms as President of the NMPA.
Although Waid officially “retired” when Grand National Scene ceased operations in 2010 he remained a busy freelance reporter to this day – working for Frontstretch.com and since 2018 co-hosting the weekly, “The Scene Vault Podcast” with longtime friend and journalist Rick Houston.
Waid’s writing received many distinguished accolades including the NMPA’s George Cunningham Writer of the Year Award and the Henry McLemore Award for outstanding contributions to motorsport. His is a 2014 NMPA Hall of Fame inductee and won the prestigious Squier-Hall Award for NASCAR Media Excellence presented by the NASCAR Hall of Fame in 2018.
Waid is survived by his wife Margaret, and their children, Celeste and Andrew; and his brother, Dr. Lewis Randolph Waid of Mount Pleasant, S.C.
In lieu of flowers, consider contributions to either Atrium Health Cancer Institute or Victory Junction.
— National Motorsports Press Association —
“For decades, Steve Waid was one of the most respected and trusted voices in NASCAR journalism. 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 long-time readers.”
— NASCAR —