Death At Talladega
After 1971, Lund began to fade from the Grand National limelight and moved to the new Grand National East Division (the replacement for the Grand American Series) and short track Late Model Sportsman (now Nationwide Series). Lund won the Sportsman season opener at Daytona twice and continued to rack up victories on short tracks that he had raced on as a youth. In 1975, he entered an A.J. King Dodge in the Talladega 500 as first alternate; when Grant Adcox's car was withdrawn from the event, Lund was in and after a short track event that Saturday was flown down in Bobby Allison's private airplane. The race was delayed a week by heavy rains but on August 17 the green flag was waved by Juan Manuel Fangio.
On the seventh lap, Lund and J. D. McDuffie collided on the backstretch; Lund and McDuffie spun down the track as it turned into chaos behind them. Rookie Terry Link was spun straight into the drivers' door of Lund's Dodge and Link's Pontiac exploded in flames. Two spectators in the infield climbed over the catch fence, and with help from driver Walter Ballard, pulled Link from his car and managed to revive him. Lund, however, was pronounced dead at the scene. Drivers in the race were not informed of the tragedy.
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