NEW SMYRNA BEACH, Fla. — Jimmy Blewett has many reasons to be thankful.
He’s thankful for his family, he’s thankful to be back in a race car this week at New Smyrna Speedway during the World Series of Asphalt Stock Car Racing and, perhaps most important, he’s thankful to still be alive.
A serious health scare last year caused by diverticulitis, a dangerous inflammation or infection in the digestive tract, resulted in multiple surgical procedures and a near-death experience that left the seven-time NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour race winner counting his blessings.
“It’s been tough,” Blewett said. “It was a huge test for me in life, but I had a great group of people supporting me throughout the way. It made that easier for me. Having my wife and family by my side throughout everything and all the guys in the racing community, the countless times that I received messages and phone calls. It was daily, just people checking to make sure I was OK.
“It’s been an adjustment. I’m back to normal now, and I feel normal now, but you also have that thought in the back of your mind that at any given moment life can change.”
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Blewett explained he hadn’t felt quite right for more than a year, but each time he went to a doctor, he was given a clean bill of health. That changed in October of 2024, when during a trip to North Wilkesboro Speedway he began to feel pain in his lower left side. The pain was swiftly followed by a fever.
That’s when he knew something wasn’t right.
“I had a small infection in my lower intestines and didn’t realize it,” Blewett said. “It would start to heal itself and get bad, then start to heal itself and get bad. I never knew I had it, because you can’t see it unless you get tested for it.
“I was on my way to North Wilkesboro, and the team was there getting ready to race. On my way down, I started to feel some pain in my left side, and then that was followed by a fever. I knew when I had the fever and the pain something was wrong, because I’d never had a pain like that before.”
Blewett canceled his plans and went back home to New Jersey to see his doctor. He was diagnosed with diverticulitis.
As it turns out, the condition runs in Blewett’s family. His older brother, the late John Blewett III, suffered from the same ailment prior to his passing in a crash in 2007.
Blewett was told a surgical remedy was his best course of action. However, what should have been a smooth and simple procedure did not go as planned.
“I spent a couple weeks in the hospital and got healed up, but ultimately they had to remove the piece that was bad,” Blewett explained. “That piece was removed, and the doctor came out and said, ‘Surgery went well.’ We were excited.
“Not long after that, I started feeling off again. Where they reconnected everything, I wasn’t getting the blood flow I needed, because they had to cauterize some blood vessels when they removed the piece (of his intestine). I developed a leak because it wouldn’t seal, so I went sceptic and pretty much almost died.”
Blewett ended up back under the knife, and his recovery timetable went from a few weeks to nearly a year. Multiple surgical procedures followed, but now, other than a large scar running from the middle of his chest to his waist, Blewett is completely healed.
He credits Modified Tour team owner Tommy Baldwin Jr., who was diagnosed with cancer in 2023 but has since gone into remission, for motivating him to keep fighting.
“I’ve never told him, but he showed me that no matter how bad it gets, just claw through and keep believing and keep that positive attitude,” Blewett said. “I kept that mindset. When I was in the hospital, he stayed in contact with me every day, and he helped me really get through it.”
While he healed, Blewett spent a lot of his time mentoring his son James as the younger Blewett continued his own racing journey. However, Jimmy and his wife Katie have made a point not to make their son’s life all about racing.
Instead, they want to find a balance so the newest member of the Blewett racing family can enjoy everything life has to offer.
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“We changed the direction on how we did it with James. With my brother and I, it was strictly pressure, and anything less than a win was no good,” Blewett explained. “With James, racing was just every single thing in our life forever, and it’s still a huge portion of it. But I also want him to experience life itself.
“We do a lot of other things besides racing. We try to go camping when we can. I’m doing it slowly with him. We go when we can go. We don’t try to do 100 races a year. We go when we can go. He’s getting better and better every time he gets behind the wheel for as minimal experience that he has. I couldn’t ask for anything more.
“But most of all, what we race for is to make the memories as a family.”
While he continues to spend a lot of time thinking about his son’s future, the 45-year-old Blewett hasn’t hung up his helmet just yet.
On Saturday he made his return to the Modified Tour for the first time since 2023 aboard the No. 2 Gershow Motorsports Modified, the first of four to six Tour races he hopes to enter this year. He also hopes to help his son make his first Tour start later this season.
After everything he went through, Blewett plans to make every moment with his family and every lap count.
“I’m back together. I feel great. I’m excited to be back,” Blewett said. “This is the best medicine anybody could get, coming to a NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour race.”