By Ben Deatherage
CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. (Aug. 26, 2026) — For retired U.S. Marine Corps Sgt. Maj. Lee Bonar Jr., a trip to Boone Speedway during the Speedway Motors IMCA Super Nationals fueled by Casey’s is about far more than watching race cars.
It is about community.
It is about finding veterans who may be struggling with the transition from military to civilian life, sometimes without anybody around them realizing it.
And, occasionally, it is about opening a door for someone who hasn’t been ready to ask for help.
“The IMCA community is a phenomenal community of patriots,” said Bonar, senior director of military relations for Hope For The Warriors. “They embrace the veteran community as well as the active, reserve, and National Guard community, and that helps them in that transition.”
Bonar will make his third trip to Boone for America’s Racin’ Vacation as Hope For The Warriors celebrates its 20th anniversary.
Founded by military families aboard Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune in 2006, HOPE began after military spouses witnessed firsthand the needs of service members returning from war with visible and invisible wounds.
What began with hospital visits, phone trees, and a community 5K has grown into a national nonprofit serving post-9/11 veterans, service members, and military families. HOPE has served more than 187,000 service members, veterans, and their loved ones during its first 20 years.
For Bonar, the difficulties surrounding that transition are something he understands personally. He enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1985 and went on to serve for more than three decades, including a 2003 deployment to Iraq with Task Force Tarawa and service as command sergeant major for U.S. Forces Afghanistan South/Southwest in 2010-11. He later served as sergeant major of III Marine Expeditionary Force before retiring from the Marine Corps in 2018.
“Our biggest problem we run into is transition,” Bonar said. “Whether you do four years, eight years, or 33 years like I did, that transition is really hard. You get broken down, built back up, you serve, and then you come out and sometimes people don’t get you.”
The military teaches its members to push through adversity, Bonar said. That mentality can become an obstacle when someone needs help after leaving the service.
“You’re conditioned to suck it up, and eventually that catches up to you,” he said. “Sometimes you come into that transition period and feel all alone. You don’t know how to get back to normalcy, get in touch with who you were, and get back into the community.”
That is where an environment like Boone can make a difference.
Bonar is a sports fan, but he sees something distinctive when he walks through a race track.
“There is no more patriotic audience than anyone that goes to a race, and it feeds our soul,” he said. “When I come out there, I feel like I’m coming home.”
Sometimes the conversations begin with veterans themselves. Other times, Bonar hears from the people standing beside them.
“A lot of times the spouses come up to me to talk about their service members or veterans because they know they’re struggling,” Bonar said. “Maybe they’re not ready yet, or they’re embarrassed to ask for help. That’s why I love that community out there.”
Those conversations don’t necessarily end when Bonar leaves Iowa.
“Every year I come out there, I leave with meeting so many individuals I hadn’t met the year before, and I stay in contact with them,” he said.
The objective is to reconnect veterans with a community and, ultimately, with parts of themselves that may have been lost during their years of service.
“We want to get them back to doing the things they forgot about before they came into the service, the things that made them happy,” Bonar said. “There are certain people who come to the event who might be veterans, and it’s a little bit of happiness they can hold onto during dark times.”
“If I can plug into them and check in on them once in a while I’m out there, that can make a difference. It can crack that door.”
HOPE’s programs address both immediate hardships and longer-term challenges. Services include critical needs assistance, career and financial coaching, military spouse and caregiver scholarships, clinical support, peer support, and opportunities for physical and recreational activity.
The organization also works to combat veteran homelessness and provides veterans and their families with connections to social workers, counselors, and other resources.
Bonar said the military footprint in Iowa makes the Super Nationals relationship particularly meaningful.
“A lot of people don’t understand the large National Guard footprint in the Iowa area,” he said. “I served many tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the amount of units that were over there from Iowa was a lot.”
For Guard members, he said, the transition between military and civilian worlds can happen especially quickly.
“You can get activated, pulled out of your civilian job, and then have to make that switch,” Bonar said. “Sometimes that can be harder than for those on active duty.”
Hope For The Warriors’ presence at Boone is also part of a longstanding relationship with Casey’s.
“The whole thing sparked from our relationship with Casey’s,” IMCA President Brett Root said. “Supporting veterans any time we have the opportunity is something we try to do, and it’s just been a really good fit.”
This year’s Casey’s and IMCA donation will be presented in front of the grandstands during Championship Saturday, bringing contributions through the partnership past $75,000 over the past 14 years.
“Hope For The Warriors is so appreciative of Casey’s and everything they do, and of IMCA and everything they do for us and for putting this event on,” Bonar said.
For Bonar and his fellow combat veterans who make the trip to Boone, however, the value of the week isn’t measured solely by the amount on a check.
It’s measured in conversations, connections, and the veterans who discover that there is still a community waiting to welcome them.
“I cherish every moment there to talk to all the people,” Bonar said. “The community really wants them. That’s what we work for — getting them back into the community and helping them understand they don’t have to feel alone or different.”
For more information about Hope For The Warriors, including programs and services available to service members, veterans, military families, and caregivers, visit www.hopeforthewarriors.org.
Veterans, service members, National Guard and Reserve members, and their loved ones in crisis can contact the Veterans Crisis Line 24 hours a day, seven days a week by dialing 988, then pressing 1, or texting 838255. The National Women Veterans Hotline can be reached at 855-829-6636.
