Fallen Dubois Marines honored by Busch race team

NASCAR driver Kurt Busch’s No. 41 Stewart-Haas Chevrolet will feature the names of two local fallen U.S. Marines during the first race of the 2014 Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.

Lance Cpl. Alec Terwiske’s name will be featured with Cpl. Eric Lueken under the No. 41 car’s rear taillight during the race at Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Ill. on September 14.

Lueken’s name was announced as being added to the vehicle earlier this year after Lueken’s cousin, John Marks of Owensboro, nominated Lueken. Then, Jake Lueken, Eric’s father, nominated Lance Cpl. Terwiske. The Kurt Busch Race Dedication program decided to honor the two Marines killed in the line of duty who share the same Dubois, Ind. hometown during the first race of the series chase.

This is the third year Busch has teamed with the Armed Forces Foundation to race in honor of service members.

Lueken, a 2001 Northeast Dubois High School graduate, was killed in action April 22, 2006, in Iraq. Lueken was mortally wounded by an improvised device that detonated while he was in a convoy in Al Anbar province, Iraq. He was a 23-year-old field radio operator with the 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division. Lueken’s parents are Jake and Melinda Lueken of Dubois.

Terwiske, a 2010 graduate of Northeast Dubois High School, was killed September 3, 2012, while conducting combat operations in Helmand providence, Afghanistan. He enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps in 2010. He was a member of the 1st Marine Division and was participating in Operation Enduring Freedom while assigned to 1st Combat Engineer Battalion, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Pendleton, Cali. Terwiske’s parents are Alan and Sandy (Eckert) Terwiske.