The Petty versus Lund tale was related to me by the late hall of fame driver Tim Flock, who was a witness to it that day so long ago.
Prior to a 250-lap race on the .333-mile track at Greensboro, driver introductions were being made on the back of a flat-bed trailer. As they passed on the make-shift stage, NASCAR champion Lee Petty and rival driver Tiny Lund exchanged angry words.
Fists instantly started flying.
The nickname “Tiny” was a misnomer. Lund stood around 6-6 and weighed 275 pounds. The 6-2 Petty possibly scaled 170.
Not surprisingly, Lund was lacing Petty with a merciless whipping.
Lee’s teenage sons, Richard and Maurice, then members of their father’s crew, rushed to his rescue.
“Tiny was beating the dickens out of all three of them,” Flock recalled with a laugh. “It looked like minnows bouncing off a battleship.”
Now, Mrs. Petty came on stage to the aid of her husband and sons. She pelted Lund’s head with her purse! Pump knots appeared on Tiny’s noggin and he scrambled to get away.
What made the purse such a weapon?
“There was a .38 pistol inside!” roared Flock.
I didn’t dare write this story as part of a “NASCAR feuds” segment I was doing for The Charlotte Observer in the 1980s until confirming the details with Richard Petty.
“That’s just how it happened,” said Richard.
“Will it embarrass your Momma if I include the part about the pistol? I asked.
King Richard, who followed his father as a driver to become the winner of seven Cup Series championships and 200 races, flashed his famous smile.
“Embarrass her? Why, she’s right proud of it!”
The race went on that afternoon in ’57 after things calmed down. Paul Goldsmith won, Lee Petty finished sixth and Tiny Lund was 13th.
However, the pre-race “show” was the hit that day.
https://tomhiggins.wordpress.com/2012/11/18/pappys-post-from-the-past-2/