14/11/1929 - 10/8/1975
Record updated 10-Aug-06
During his long and varied racing career, Tiny raced in USAC, ARCA and the Pacific Coast Racing Association, as well as the Grand American Series. He won the Grand American Championship three times (1968, 1970 and 1971) and he won the Grand National East Championship in 1973.
Born DeWayne Louis Lund in Harlan, Iowa, he was a large man given the affectionate nickname "Tiny" because of his size. Lund began racing motorcycles as a boy and in 1955 had worked his way up to Grand National stock car racing.
Tiny's first NASCAR race was on October 9, 1955 in Lehi, Arkansas. He started 23rd in his 1955 Chevrolet, sponsored by Ruppert Safety Belt Company. But on lap 65 he crashed, his acr going into a series of rolls. He suffered a broken arm and multiple bruises as his seatbelt broke during the accident.
In 1963, he was in Daytona Beach, FL watching the time trials before that year’s Daytona 500. Driver Marvin Panch, racing for the Woods brothers, was test driving an experimental Massarotti when he suffered a terrible accident. Lund was awarded the Carnegie Medal of Honor for his heroism after he pulled badly-injured fellow driver Marvin Panch from his burning car following the crash.
While Panch recovered in the hospital from massive burns the Woods brothers offered to let Tiny have the qualified spot in the Daytona 500. Lund went on to win the Daytona 500 on a single set of tyres, the single most important race of his career. This win is often referred to as the Cinderfella story of NASCAR. Later that year he won the 500 mile Modified Sportsman race in Atlanta.
Tiny Lund appeared in the 1968 stockcar racing movie Speedway starring Elvis Presley.
Tiny went on to compete until 1975 when an accident at Talladega, AL claimed his life in a T-Bone crash. At the time of his death he was married to Wanda Lee Lund and they had one son, Christopher DeWayne Lund.
During his long and varied racing career, Tiny raced in USAC, ARCA and the Pacific Coast Racing Association, as well as the Grand American Series. He won the Grand American Championship three times (1968, 1970 and 1971). And, he won the Grand National East Championship in 1973.
In 1994 he was inducted posthumously into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in Talladega, Alabama.
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