1963 Daytona 500
In February 1963, Lund went down to Daytona shopping around for any ride. Lund's friend Marvin Panch, the driver for the Wood Brothers racing team, had an accident while testing an experimental Ford-powered Maserati sports car for the second Daytona Continental three-hour sportscar race (a precursor to the Rolex 24). Panch's car swerved out of control, flipped over and burst into flames. Lund ran into the inferno and managed to pull Panch out of the wreckage. For his actions, Lund was awarded the Carnegie Medal of Honor.
Panch, in hospital, asked Lund to race his car and Glen Wood agreed. He timed in fourth in individual qualifying trials, and finished sixth in the second qualifying race. Lund took the green flag from 12th on the grid.
The start of the race was delayed due to heavy rains, and then the first 10 laps were run under caution. As the green flag waved on the Great American Race, it was Fireball Roberts on pole and "Flying" Fred Lorenzen outside of him. Lorenzen led the race. Lund worked his way through the field. The Wood Brothers team had an ace up their sleeve – they planned to complete the race on one stop less than the field. Lund managed to take the lead very late in the race. Lorenzen passed Lund with 10 laps left to go, but Lorenzen ran out of gas and had to dive down pit road out of contention. Then Ned Jarrett made the pass on Lund for the top spot but with three to go he also ran out of gas. Lund's car ran out of fuel on the final lap, but he managed to coast home to win the 1963 Daytona 500.
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