The headstone is a simple one, the kind issued to military veterans, and the inscribed words do not include the nickname by which he was best known. It tells visitors to Berkeley Memorial Gardens in Moncks Corner, S.C., only that DeWayne L. Lund was born on Nov. 14, 1929, died on Aug. 17, 1975, and served in the U.S. Air Force in Korea. It makes no mention of his racing career, says nothing of his triumphs, gives no indication that some of the greatest names in NASCAR once stood on the same ground paying their final respects to a fellow competitor and friend. This last resting place is also a very long way from Iowa, where the legend of Tiny Lund was born.

Like most racers he eventually gravitated south to where the competition was, making a home for himself in rural Cross, S.C., where he ran a fish camp and loved frightening visitors with 80 mph powerboat rides across nearby Lake Moultrie. His legacy is bookended by events at NASCAR's two biggest tracks: Daytona, where he won the 500 for the Wood Brothers days after pulling regular driver Marvin Panch from a fiery sports-car accident, and Talladega, where he was killed in a car he probably should have never been in. But it was Iowa that the 6-foot-5, 250-pound Lund called home. And while some would make an argument for Johnny Beauchamp -- the locals still stew over that controversial 1959 Daytona 500, which Lee Petty won over Beauchamp in a photo finish that took three days to figure out -- it was Lund who is generally considered the best racer the Hawkeye State has ever known.

Iowa Speedway will host its first NASCAR national series event on Saturday, when the Nationwide Series competes before what's expected to be a crowd of more than 50,000 people. The three-year-old speedway, a seven-eighths-mile tri-oval in Newton designed by former NASCAR champion Rusty Wallace, is a long way from the little dirt track in Harlan where Lund got his start. But Shelby County Speedway is still there, rescued from closure in 2006 when local racers got together and bought shares to keep the place going. A Tiny Lund Memorial race is held on the two-fifths-mile banked speedway each September, and more than 150 cars regularly show up to try and make the main event. The pace car is a restored street version of the 1963 Ford that Lund used to win the Daytona 500.

"This was the one he started on," said Ron Jensen, a friend and high school classmate of Lund's who still lives in Harlan. "He'd been racing on it since he was 16 years old. He still thought it was the best dirt track in the United States. Most years, we'd try to get him to come back for a race." (Continued)