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NASCAR to honor fallen soldier Aaron Butler during race

Posted at 9:45 PM, May 22, 2018
and last updated 2018-05-22 23:45:07-04

SALT LAKE CITY - On this Memorial Day weekend, NASCAR is honoring a Utah soldier killed in Afghanistan in August.  Army Staff Sergeant Aaron Butler’s name will be on the windshield of Aric Almirola's #10 car as part of NASCAR’s ‘600 Miles of Remembrance.’

“It’s going to be a special, almost sacred moment when I get to see the car,” said Quinn Butler, Aaron’s brother.

Quinn will be traveling to Charlottesville, North Carolina for the race.  Butler’s fiancé, Alexandria Seagrove is already there.

“As long as they are going to be doing memorials for Aaron, I’ll always be going to them,” she said from a hotel in North Carolina.

The car’s driver, Aric Almirola tweeted:

I'm humbled to race in honor of US Army Staff Sergeant Aaron Butler this weekend. Butler was part of the First Battalion 19th Special Forces unit, graduated from the Army Green Berets Special Forces Qualification course in January 2016 & died Aug. 16, 2017.

The choice of car and driver is no accident.  A member of Amirola’s pit crew met Butler before he was killed.

“Even though it’s a weekend for barbecuing and everything, three-day weekend kind of thing, don’t forget why we are actually having this holiday,” said Seagrove. “With Memorial Day we are remembering all those that we lost and everything, but I think the remembering should be done in a way that kind of gives back, you know.”

Seagrove says her personal cause is supporting veteran-owned businesses.  At the time of his death, Butler was working to set up a leadership training business in Utah.