John Andretti, the 54-year-old nephew of Mario Andretti and a longtime NASCAR and IndyCar racer, has revealed that he is suffering from stage four colon cancer, which has also spead to his liver Andretti says he is undergoing chemotherapy treatment near his home in North Carolina.

Andretti, pictured at Indianapolis ahead of the last of his 11 starts in the 500 in 2011, told Indianapolis TV station WTHR that the cancer was discovered during a routine colonoscopy in January.

“Now I’m a Stage 4A. There is only a stage 4B from my understanding, so I’m not really excited about that. But the good news is that we are still on the side that has a good chance of being cured,” Andretti said.

Andretti said he decided to go public to encourage people to undergo colon cancer screenings, and has created the hasthag know. Use the hashtag #CheckIt4Andretti with that aim in mind.

“You know how much I really didn’t want to talk about this or do this, because I don’t want it to be a story about me,” he told WTHR. “But the way to help your family is if you don’t do it for you, do it for your family. Because everybody’s life that you affect, that you’re a part of, I think is really important.”

John Andretti scored two NASCAR Cup wins and one IndyCar victory. He raced 11 times in the Indianapolis 500, with a best finish of fifth in 1991 – the same year that he won the CART Indy car race at Surfers Paradise for Jim Hall’s team.