: Have you always been a Chevy guy?
Fulton: Well, my first car was a ’56 Ford, so I was Ford man then, but my next one was a ’58 Chevrolet and I’ve been a Chevy guy ever since. I mean, once you started racing in the ‘60s it didn’t take but a second to see what you oughta’ be racing. I mean, Duntov and them that designed the small-block Chevrolet, they did a good day’s work. It has been the staple of racing in this country and still is.
: Are you often recognized at the track? How do people react to you?
Fulton: I’ve kind of kept it a lot like Elvis. You know Elvis is still alive, but has anybody seen him? I mean, most places I go to people don’t know who I am and that’s good for me, that’s fine with me. But my name has been around racing pretty heavy, especially the last 10 years, so a lot of people do know me, racers and fans all over the world and I get reactions from some that are really kind of ridiculous. But most of them don’t know what I look like—they’ve heard of me, all of em’ have heard of me—but I’m kind of incognito and I like it like that.
: It must be gratifying to have the name recognition, though.
Fulton: Oh yeah, it’s gratifying in more ways than one. It’s been good. I’ve had a really good year this year.
: You must have a very organized mind, I think, only because your office and your shop don’t seem to reflect that very much.
Fulton: Right, okay, when I was in high school I belonged to Future Farmers of America and they had thing called soil judging. So we would go out somewhere and each of these kids from all these schools, these future farmers, they’d come out and look at the land, look at the dirt, they’d have four of five holes dug around some farm and we’d all have these sheets to fill out about what this land is good for. One of the questions that I’ll never forget was ‘What is a good use; what is the best use; and what is the most intensive use?’ Well, you’ve got to apply that to your life. Is it going to be half-assed as it is, or where are you going to concentrate your efforts?
Well, you’re living a life and you’ve only got one life to live so you’ve got to live all facets of it. And you see me, I do. And I think I’ve got a big advantage over a lot of them in that I’ve never smoked, I’ve never drugged, I’ve never drank, and I don’t chase after women. I like looking at them, think about them as much as anybody, but I’m married to a wonderful woman that’s perfect for me. So I don’t let any of things dominate my life, I concentrate on other things toward family, toward business, toward life.
You work on what really matters and it ain’t necessarily a clean floor or an organized shelf; you worry about what needs getting done and how it’s getting done. Is it getting done at the right rate? Is it getting done functionally correct? So I’m always working on what’s the most intensive use of my time, not worrying about all the side stuff.
: You obviously work hard and play hard, but what do you do to relax?
Fulton: Oh, I can watch TV with the best of them. And I like country-and western and old rock, probably like all of us from the ‘60s.
: Finally, it’s a traditional question: boxers or briefs?
Fulton: Briefs in the winter time; natural aeration in the summer time.
