By Mark Aumann, Turner Sports Interactive
January 7, 2003
10:30 PM EST (0330 GMT)
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Tiny Lund's good deed paid off great dividends during the fifth annual Daytona 500.
Lund, who had helped pull Marvin Panch from the burning wreckage of his race car just two weeks before, was behind the wheel of the car Panch had been scheduled to drive, with Panch's blessings.
Even so, the 6-4, 270-pound fishing camp operator from Cross, S.C., needed some divine providence -- and a few extra drops of racing fuel -- to pull off the improbable victory.
With ten laps to go, Fred Lorenzen passed Lund but was forced to pit for fuel two laps later, having run the tank dry. Then Ned Jarrett went by Lund, only to suffer the same fate just three laps from the checkered flag.
 | KNOW YOUR NASCAR | | | | | | |
|
|
Lund's own car coughed and sputtered on the final lap but he was able to coast around for the victory, having led only 17 laps all day.
"This is the first time I've raced at Daytona that something didn't happen to me," Lund said. "And this time I felt I was giving out of gas four laps from the finish.
"I did all I could to conserve the fuel, half-throttling on the straights and riding in the drafts of some other cars. I was really out of gas on that last lap. There's not a drop in the car now."
Lorenzen rebounded to finish second, with Jarrett third.
| 1963 Daytona 500 Top 10 | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
|
|
When the month started, Panch was planning to drive a Wood Brothers Ford while Lund was combing the garage area for a ride. But when Panch suffered third-degree burns, he recommended Lund as his replacement. Owner Glen Wood was pleased that he had followed Panch's advice.
"We couldn't ask for a better driving job than Tiny's today," Wood said.
Doctors gave Panch permission to watch the race from an infield ambulance and both Lund and Wood vowed to give 10 percent of their winnings to help pay Panch's medical expenses.
The race nearly didn't get under way at all. A heavy downpour delayed the start for 100 minutes, then the first 10 laps were run under caution.
From that point, Bobby Johns, Paul Goldsmith, G.C. Spencer and Rex White took turns leading until Lorenzen moved to the front on lap 70. By lap 119, the race had settled into a three-car duel between the Fords of Lorenzen, Jarrett and Lund, the only drivers to finish on the lead lap.
This is one in a series of articles counting down to the 2003 Daytona 500.
|
© 2001-2012 NASCAR | Turner Sports Interactive, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
NASCAR.COM is part of Turner - SI Digital, part of the Turner Sports & Entertainment Digital Network.
