Matt Smith is the backbone of his Pro Stock Motorcycle team, Matt Smith Racing.
Yet when Smith, a six-time NHRA world champion, arrived at the Potomac Nationals Presented by JEGS at Maryland International Raceway in Mechanicsville, Md., on May 28, he suffered a medical emergency.
On June 4, Smith underwent successful surgery to remove his gallbladder. On June 5, he was scheduled to have another procedure to remove stones from his ducts.
Matt discussed how things unfolded with his health during a Facebook Live broadcast on June 3.
“I woke up Thursday morning (May 28) with a lot of pain about 2 o’clock in the morning,” Smith said. “We got in the truck at 5 a.m., and started driving, making our five-hour trip to Budds Creek, Maryland. As I was driving up there, I had a lot more pain hit me. I had Angie take over the wheel of the truck while I went to the bathroom back there and got very, very sick. (We) got off of the highway, went through the back roads. I started driving again, got to the track, got the truck and trailer parked, and immediately Angie took me to the emergency room.”
That’s when the source of Matt’s pain was diagnosed.
“From that point there, I was admitted in the emergency room with pancreatitis, which people don’t know what that is. That’s when your pancreas is really inflamed and bloated. I had a gallbladder that had gallstones in it,” Matt said.
“Those stones were blocking stuff, and that’s what inflamed the pancreas. And also, I battle kidney stones all the time. I had kidney stones in me. And what a lot of people don’t know is about four weeks after Gainesville, I got a real bad hernia that started, and it started popping through.”
“I’ve been babying it, trying to get through the end of the year, been in some pain, but just managing, trying to run this team, trying to run our bikes. And as a racer, you do what you can to promote your sponsor and don’t be a wuss. But I think after what happened to Kyle Busch (who passed away at age 41 with a severe case of pneumonia that progressed into sepsis on May 22).”
“I think a lot of racers need to pay attention and take care of their health a little bit better. We can’t always race in pain. We can’t always do what we think we should do. We need to get a second opinion of doctors. And that’s why I did what I did. I went to the hospital. They admitted me, and I stayed there until Sunday.”
When he was released from the hospital on May 31, he was able to watch an improbable story unfold for his team. His wife Angie qualified No. 1 and then won the race by defeating Ryan Oehler in the final round.
“The team did really great this weekend,” Matt said. “First shout-out I got to give is to Angie’s sister and her fiancé. They were coming up to watch the race, and basically, they came up and spent every minute they could in the hospital with me, stayed with me while Angie got to race and run the team.”
“Second is Eddie Krawiec and Andrew Hines of Vance & Hines. They were kind enough to pick spots out for my team, where to go in each lane. Typically, I do that. And a lot of times, we agree on spots. A lot of times, we don’t. And I’ll pick my own spots.”
“But I’m very thankful that they did that for our team. That kind of shows that even though we can be enemies, we’re all a family out there. We’re all family. And we would do the same thing for them if they were down and they needed help.”
“So, I want to thank them. I want to thank the other Pro Stock Motorcycle teams and even a Pro Stock team and a Top Fuel team that came by and offered their services to help my team out while I was down.”
Being sidelined while his team raced is something Matt had never experienced.
“My team has never raced anything without me being on the property. And it was hard,” Matt said. “It was hard for me to do that because at first, we weren’t doing that. We were just cranking the bikes up and taking the tree, and that’s all we were doing.”
“And luckily, I made a phone call to Chip Ellis, and he said he’d come up and ride my bike.”
“When I knew I got that, that’s when I told Angie, ‘We’re going to race motorcycles because I know that I can teach y’all enough stuff to do.’ And with Chip being there, he’s run bikes before, not as an owner so much, but as a crew chief with Junior Pippin back in the day.”
“I was fairly confident that y’all could get the thing done, and they did.”
“So, my hat’s off. My other people to thank are Chip Ellis for coming up and riding my motorcycle and helping Angie and everybody else on that team.”
“Michael Ray stepped up and was a big leader and learned new things of what to do and how to do things. Can’t say enough for Michael. I mean, he’s a full-time employee here, and he has done a wonderful job.”
Matt added more thanks, including John Hall, Jianna Evaristo and Angie Smith for helping keep the operation moving forward.
Ray explained what was going through his mind when Smith was sidelined.
“You know, it was, I guess, the most comfortable, uncomfortable situation that we’ve ever been in because I’ve been with Matt forever, and Angie isn’t lying,” Ray said.
“Matt’s never not been on the starting line when his motorcycles are going down the track. So, for him to not even be at the facility, in the situation and circumstance that he was in, to have the trust and faith not only in Angie but all of us.”
“I mean, from making sure the trailer was full of diesel to making sure the bikes were safe. There were tremendous responsibilities that were put on all of us. It was definitely an anxiety-driven weekend.”
“We just had to put it all down on paper, what our duties are, and let’s make sure nothing gets missed.”
“It was definitely coming off the highs and the immediate low of Chicago to go into Maryland and then experience this, and it’s like, ‘Oh, man, can we have more crazy bad luck happen.’”
“And to end it the way it did on Sunday, I guess the only thing that would have made it better was if we had an all-MSR final. But it was great. It was emotional. It is definitely something, if we have to do it again, we know how to do it.”
Having veteran racer Ellis show up in the MSR pits was welcomed by Ray.
“Like I said, the Lord knew we needed help. And before Angie started up for Q1, I looked over my shoulder, and the Lord sent us Chip Ellis,” Ray said.
“When Matt called me Friday morning, he had a discussion with me about me possibly being a fill-in driver. I said, ‘Matt, I will do whatever we got to do for this team and this family.’”
“About an hour later, he called me and goes, ‘I’m going to bring Chip in because I don’t want to put that on you.’ And I knew right there that we were going to be okay because Chip ran a team from driving the truck to riding the bike.”
“And it was great because what it actually did was Chip jumped in and worked on Gianna’s bike most of the weekend. That allowed me to do a lot of the duties that Matt does instead of me having to do all of mine and his.”
“It allowed Chip to do my specific duties, and I got to do more of what Matt does every day. And it was just a tremendous help having him there.”
Ray said modern technology helped keep Smith involved despite being hospitalized.
“Matt’s out. We know what we got to do,” Ray said. “And thank God we live in the 21st century where FaceTime and video chat are so easy to do because, man, we were wearing that video chat and FaceTime out.”
“There were just things that, while I may do something, he’s there to double-check and make sure that my numbers are correct.”
“And it was just like he would say, ‘Hey, here’s your parameters on where you can run the clutch. Nothing more, nothing less.’”
“And then you put the big-boy pants on because now you gotta make that million-dollar decision.”
As for his return to racing, Matt is taking a slower approach.
“I could race Bristol, they said,” Matt said. “But I’m going to choose to try to get healthy. I need to get back healthy to where we can run for a championship, and I can run this team like it needs to run for a championship.”
“So, I’m going to sit Bristol out. I will sit Norwalk out, and I’m probably going to end up sitting the GETTRX All-Star Callout.”
“Now, there will be somebody on my bike for those races. I want to come back strong for Indy.”
“I want to come back and be ready to race for a championship, at least help somebody on my team race for a championship. I think we have the potential to do that this year.”
“So that’s kind of the update of what’s going on. I appreciate all the prayers, fans coming, people just sending text messages.”
