A bus at Charlotte’s racetrack welcomes troops, loves NASCAR and keeps a memory alive

From the outside, it looks like a rolling American flag.

From the inside, it feels like a memory.

But to Chris Efaw, it’s simple: “It’s a tradition.”

Every Memorial Day weekend for over three decades now, a 1972 refurbished school bus sits near the center of the Charlotte Motor Speedway infield. It’s painted pristine white. Stripes of red and blue streak its sides, and “God Bless Our Troops” is written just underneath the driver’s side windows.

The bus holds six beds. Two air conditioning units. A full-sized fridge. Patches from police uniforms are hung by nails drilled into wood on the driver’s side. So are dog tags of fallen soldiers and pictures of beloved family members. There are also thousands — yes, thousands — of Sharpie signatures covering the bus’s walls from all those who’ve popped by to say hello throughout the years: Some signatures are from the early 90s, their markings unfazed by rust or time; other signatures are from earlier this week.

The bus began as a gathering spot for troops to eat and watch races, Efaw said.

It has since, in many ways, become a fan fixture at the Coca-Cola 600.

“Well, my daddy owned it,” Efaw, 52, said of his late father, Bubba Hammond. The son said it with a friendly smile and a Southern drawl born and bred in the Carolinas. “He had it — gosh, he had it when I was a boy.”

Efaw estimated his father bought the school bus and stripped it of its seats about 30 years ago. He named it “Our Bus” because “everybody at the racetrack would come on it,” and he started asking for guests to sign its interior. The bus was originally orange, but it was painted by Hammond’s wife and daughter after 9/11 into what it looks like now, Efaw said.

“(My father) always brought the troops over, fed them, gave them a place to watch the race (on the roof) because they got tired of standing on the ground the whole time,” Efaw said. “So it had become a tradition to get all the troops on it. … All the soldiers, they usually pile up here. We once had like 83 (people) here, I think, last May or something, up on top of the bus.”

The Efaws, who reside in Rock Hill, South Carolina, have a lot of “military family.” In many ways, the bus serves as a way to keep that memory alive, too: Efaw’s father was a Vietnam veteran. His uncle, Donny, was one too. His grandfather and great-grandfather also were veterans of foreign wars.

“We got a lot of friends who were in the military, who served, and so did our family,” said Brandon Efaw, Chris’s nephew. “So it’s just nice to be able to see them every May — and October here, too, but especially May when all the troops come in — and to have something to serve everybody.”

The bus has been to other racetracks beyond Charlotte Motor Speedway. It’s been to Darlington. Talladega. Efaw’s father was a big Dale Earnhardt fan and lugged the bus to Daytona to see Earnhardt win the cathartic 1998 Daytona 500. (The bus also made the trip to that racetrack three years later, when Earnhardt was killed in an accident in the 2001 race.)

At certain places, the soft-spoken driver of the bus he affectionately calls “a tank” has heard a similar refrain from visitors and friends: It’s not going to feel right without that bus here.

“Everything is going big RVs, campers, but this is a tradition,” Efaw said. “Michael Waltrip came by here one day, and he said, ‘That’s what racing is right there, man. I’m glad to see this is what racing is.’ And he came on here and signed it. Jeb Burton signed. Clint Bowyer, Kurt Busch. A lot of the older drivers know what it is.”

The bus is old. Efaw feels its age whenever it takes it out of park. After October’s Roval race, it had to get towed because the clutch went out. The family has poured in just about $6,000 in the car since October, Efaw said.

“Whenever we talk about retiring it, everyone says, ‘You’re not going to get these back,’” Efaw said, pointing to the signatures on the walls. “And they’re right. My buddy signed here, and he’s passed away. We just can’t let it go.”

Sunday wasn’t a normal Coca-Cola 600 for the bus or the Efaw family. Rain poured. There were no on-track activities, nor was there a Doobie Brothers concert or a flyover or a pre-race ceremony honoring the troops.

By 6:30 p.m., NASCAR had postponed the race to Monday. But even still, not an hour after that, you could see two Efaw nephews, Brandon and Will, on top of the bus, hands stuffed in their pockets, hoodies over their heads.

No racing was going on. None would go on that day. But they still stood in the light rain and in the moment for a while — as if the bus helped them see something they otherwise couldn’t.

Editor’s note: A previous version of the story misspelled the main subject’s last name. The error has been fixed.