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Balestrino to serve as honorary starter for NASCAR race
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David Balestrino Jr. of Youngstown, a U.S. Army veteran and Purple Heart recipient, will be the honorary starter at Sunday’s Pure Michigan 400 NASCAR race at Michigan International Speedway. Balestrino earned the honor after winning a contest on the Pure Michigan Facebook page.
U.S. Army veteran Balestrino to serve
as starter for Pure Michigan 400
From staff and wire reports
brooklyn, mich.
A U.S. Army veteran and Purple Heart recipient from Youngstown has been selected as the honorary starter for the Pure Michigan 400 NASCAR race after his hope of honoring his 6-year-old son on race day resonated with voters in an online contest, organizers said Wednesday.
David Balestrino Jr. of Youngstown won the contest on the Pure Michigan Facebook page, getting hundreds of votes for his entry on why he wanted to honor Brady by waving the green flag Sunday at Michigan International Speedway. Pure Michigan is the state’s tourism campaign.
“While serving in Iraq I missed the entire first year of Brady’s life,” Balestrino said in a statement. “That was the most difficult thing I ever had to go through.”
With the honor, he said, he hopes he “can make everyone who has served or is still serving proud.”
Balestrino served as a combat engineer from 2003-2009 and received a Purple Heart during service in Iraq. For the contest, people submitted entries of 50 words or less explaining why they should be selected as honorary starter. His entry got more than 800 votes.
As honorary starter, Balestrino will get a pace car ride from NASCAR’s official pace car driver and attend the NASCAR Sprint Cup drivers’ meeting.
TV personality and Traverse City native Carter Oosterhouse is Pure Michigan 400 grand marshal of the event.
“We’re definitely excited that we were actually picked out of all the entrants that were in the contest,” Balestrino said by phone Wednesday evening. “We’re grateful for everyone that took the time to vote for us.”
Father and son share a love of racing. Brady is also a great admirer of the armed forces.
“He’s just a huge racing fan and he’s all about the military,” Balestrino said. “Even though he’s only 6, he understands the sacrifices those men and women make.
“Just to be picked is special and meaningful for both of us.”
Balestrino was at work Tuesday when he found out he had won the contest.
“It was about 11 or 11:30,” he said. “I got an e-mail from Pure Michigan and it said they wanted to congratulate me for winning the contest.
“I think I’m still shaking.”
Momentary shock turned to jubilation when he asked his colleague to proofread the message to make sure he wasn’t mistaken.
“We both just started jumping up and down,” Balestrino laughed. “People were staring at us. They didn’t know what was going on. It was almost surreal.”
Balestrino will wave the green flag for the noon start on Sunday.
The race will be televised by ESPN.