Fultz, 30, stands second in the NASCAR Slim Jim All-Pro series standings. There is one race remaining, Nov.5 at Nashville, Tenn.

        The Slim Jim is a touring stock-car series that runs mostly in the Southeast. Fultz stands second to Billy Bigley in the points race, and will need some help. Bigley has 2,126 points and Fultz has 2,048, which is a lot of ground to make up in one day.

        “He's got to finish 20th or worse, and I've got to win this last race,” Fultz said.

        Fultz lives in Mooresville, N.C., in the Charlotte area where most NASCAR Winston Cup teams are based. During the week, Fultz works as a fabricator in the race shop of Winston driver Robert Pressley.

        Fultz has been in the chase for a Slim Jim title before. He finished second in the 1997 standings and was fifth in 1999.

        He also has run on the ASA and ARCA series nationally. Along with Glenn Allen Jr., a friend who was once NASCAR Busch rookie of the year, Fultz is one of the top drivers Cincinnati has produced in recent years. He has won two Slim Jim races in 2000.

        Fultz also wants to move up, if he can.

        “We're talking with some (NASCAR) Truck teams and Busch teams about next year,” he said. “In one case the sponsor wants a 25-or-younger kid, and I'm 30. I don't want to just jump into anything that comes along, because that's not smart either.”

        If nothing else, Fultz hopes to return “home” next year to race at Kentucky Speedway, which will play host to two Slim Jim races in 2001. Fultz drove in the inaugural race at Kentucky on June 16, a Slim Jim event for which he qualified second. He was running with the leaders when an electrical problem stopped him, and he finished 18th.

        “That was a disappointment,” he said. “If we had done better there, I might have had a better chance at the championship. But you have to have some luck to win, too.”

        LOCAL SCENE: Kentucky Speedway is adding 200 reserved RV spaces for campers for the 2001 race season. The spaces will be behind Turns 1 and 2, and a full season pass costs $800 per space. There are four race weekends, highlighted by a NASCAR Busch race on June 16, 2001.

        The speedway said that its private, backstretch RV area remains sold out for 2001, with over 150 people on the waiting list.

        HORNISH WINS: Sam Hornish Jr., thanks to his strong performance at Kentucky Speedway in August, won the prestigious Pennzoil Panther ride for the 2001 Indy Racing League season. One of the team owners is San Diego Chargers quarterback Jim Harbaugh.

        Hornish will replace Scott Goodyear, who is leaving Pennzoil by mutual agreement. Goodyear was not winning enough to suit either him or Pennzoil, although he did win the final IRL race of 2000.

        Hornish, a 21-year-old native of Defiance, Ohio, was an IRL rookie in 2000. At the Kentucky Speedway IRL race on Aug. 27, Hornish charged from 20th to first place before finishing ninth. That, and some im pressive testing at Kentucky before that, were big reasons Pennzoil chose him over such drivers as former Indy 500 pole winner Billy Boat and Alex Barron.

        Goodyear has been offered a full-time IRL ride for 2001 by driver-owner Eddie Cheever Jr. Goodyear is not sure whether he will return to the IRL.

        DALES EVERYWHERE: Dale Earnhardt and son Dale Earnhardt Jr. announced that they will join veteran road racer Andy Pilgrim on the Corvette team for next season's Rolex 24 Hours endurace race at Daytona Beach, Fla. The race will run Feb. 3-4, 2001, which is two weekends before the Daytona 500.

        E-mail tgroeschen@enquirer.com

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