TOLEDO OH (11-15-09) - Beau Slocumb competed in four ARCA RE/MAX Series races in 2009 earning a career-best fifth place finish at Kansas Speedway. He enjoyed his ARCA experience so much he wants to come back for the full schedule in 2010. Of course, that's easier said than done. It takes a lot of committed resources to run the whole year. But Slocumb is hopeful that things will work out. Actually, grateful, is more like it.

Slocumb, 24, was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer in January of 2009, just days before he was scheduled to make his ARCA debut at Daytona. After months and months of chemo treatments during a six month-long stay at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas, Slocumb was back inside a racecar in August for the ARCA race at Chicagoland.

"It started back in December of last year," said Slocumb. "Ryan Newman and I are good friends. I went to Ryan about advice for testing at Daytona. He recommended Kevin Harvick. He went with me to talk to him (Harvick) but Kevin was already running the ARCA race at Daytona with Ricky Carmichael. Then he picked up the phone and talked to Butch Hylton at TRG Motorsports.

"Everything worked out with TRG so we went to Daytona for the test. Everything went great and we were getting ready to run the race. ARCA told me I had to get a 2009 physical even though I had just had one a month ago. Anyway, the night before I was at my parent's house and got to coughing. Coughed up some blood. My uncle's a doctor and he thought it was probably just bronchitis but to get a chest x-ray."

That's when things began to get serious.

"That's when they found out I had some kind of mass on my right lung. Me and Dad got in the truck and went to the cardiologist in Macon (GA). Doctor said he couldn't tell what it was but that I needed a CT scan right now.

"I had two different doctors tell me it was what they call an AV Malformation, nothing more than blood vessels with too much pressure; it's not uncommon. But then they found out that there was no blood flowing through it, so they ruled out the Malformation. When I came to, that's when they told me, ‘we got a problem. It's a tumor.'

"This was a week before the race. I had my surgery on January 28th and the race was February 7th. They took out the whole upper lobe of my right lung and sent it off to pathology for diagnosis. Finally, the day of the ARCA race, the doctor called me and wanted to meet with me at my parents' house at 11:00. I asked him to tell me over the phone but he wouldn't. Now we're panicking."

The news got worse.

"The doctor said, ‘there's nothing good about it.' He said it was a super rare form of cancer. Said he wasn't trying to scare me, but it's not good. Then he said I needed to expect (to live) two to three years. Well, that scared the heck out of us."

That's also when Steve Turner of Turner Motorsports called.

"Steve is the person who got me in at MD Anderson. It's the go-to place for cancer treatment. There's a waiting list to get in and the place is full 100% of the time. He picked up the phone, made some calls, and got me in.

"So we immediately went to MD Anderson. We met with the doctor first thing Monday morning. He told me I have Synovial Sarcoma. They did a full body scan, did all the blood work. It took a couple days, then I flew back home.

"I wasn't home long when we turned around and drove back out to Texas and started the chemo treatment."

Slocumb would spend the next half year of his life at MD Anderson.

"I took eight bags of chemo in one treatment. Each treatment lasted one week. Then I was out for two weeks then back in. I did it six times altogether. It was rough. I got so sick. But after the second time I guess my body just got more used to it and I wasn't getting so sick anymore - just very weak. Your blood count gets so low. You can't do anything. Can't go anywhere. You literally have no white blood cells so you can't fight off anything."

As if that wasn't enough, there were more complications to come.

"Then I got a fever and they couldn't get rid of it. I was in ICU for five days. It was 103 and a half. Then I got pneumonia in both lungs, ecoli and a blood infection. Thank God I had my girlfriend (Jessica Pitts) with me. She stayed with me the whole time.

"We both got to know all the doctors. One doctor pulled her to the side and told her how lucky I was. That they only see someone that sick once a year, and that nine times out of 10 they don't walk out of the hospital. They told her I almost didn't make it and that we just didn't realize how lucky we are."

After six consecutive, grueling treatments, Slocumb could finally go home.

"I'm considered in remission. There are no cancerous cells in my body."

Less than a month after he was home, he climbed back aboard his late model and tested at a short-track in Georgia.

"Then Steve (Turner) called me. He asked me if the test went well, and if I had all my stamina, that if I wanted to, I could run the ARCA race at Chicagoland. Well, I felt great after the test so I called Steve and said, ‘if the offer's still there, I'd like to run Chicago.' It was my first time on a mile and a half and we did pretty well, so he ran me at Toledo, DuQuoin and Kansas."

And that's not all. Slocumb is getting ready to fire up his late model to run the World Crown 300 at Gresham Motorsports Park in Jefferson, Georgia yet this weekend.

"I feel really good. Just working in my dad's shop getting ready for the race this weekend. Just went for a checkup - I go every three months now. All the scans came back good. My blood work is clear - good to go."

There are more big plans in the works.

"I'm planning on testing at Daytona for sure. Same car that James Buescher won in down there last year. And, I'm actually getting married in January."

Slocumb also keeps in close contact with his friend Ryan Newman, who has helped him along in his career.

"About six or seven years ago, when the Cup cars were running Atlanta, Ed Clark (track president) called my dad and asked if I wanted to take Ryan Newman fishing. So we did and we became friends. If I need anything, he always said don't hesitate to ask as long as every time I come to Georgia I can go fishing."

So with the aid of great family and friends, and a new lease on life, Slocumb has had plenty of time to reflect.

"An experience like that makes you think about everything. I asked the doctor, ‘what can I do to keep this from happening again?' He said, ‘for starters, change my diet. Just eat better.'

"The whole thing just really makes you think. You definitely start living life to the fullest. I know everyone says to do that anyway, but you've got to enforce it. I don't take anything for granted anymore. This changed me in ways I can't even explain. It brought me a whole lot closer to God and faith. It showed me how to live life and how I didn't need to be living life. I pretty much put it all into His hands. He showed me He can take it all away as fast as He wanted to. It was my wake up call to straighten up and act right."