Robert Pressley:
Robert Pressley (born April 8, 1959 in Asheville, North Carolina) is a former NASCAR driver. In a February 2006 Sportingnews.com article about the 2001 Daytona 500 field, Robert's current status was listed as "Opened Celebrity's Hotdogs in Asheville, N.C., about two years ago. Racing career appears over."[1]. Presently, he is also the head of the driver development program for JTG Racing.
[edit] Beginnings
Because his father, Bob, was a short track racer in Asheville, the younger Pressley naturally followed his father into the sport. In fact, his brother Charley, has been a long-time crew chief in the NASCAR level. Pressley began running at New Asheville Speedway and Greenville-Pickens Speedway and won championships at both tracks. He also put together 150 wins in various Late Model Series in the Southeast. In 1984, Pressley made his NASCAR debut in the Busch Series at Charlotte Motor Speedway, finishing 26th. Five years later, Pressley ran a limited schedule in the Busch Series, and won in just his twelfth series start at Orange County Speedway. He ran full seasons from 1991-1994, his best year coming in 1992 when he won races and finished fifth in points. In 1994, he ran three races in the Winston Cup Series in a car sponsored by Manheim Auctions, his best finish being a 31st at Charlotte.
[edit] Winston Cup
In 1995, Pressley took over for the retired Harry Gant in the #33 car owned by Leo Jackson Motorsports in Cup. He posted one top-ten finish and was runner-up to Ricky Craven for Rookie of the Year. The following year, he put together two top-five finishes. Unfortunately, Jackson was retiring and sold his operation to crew chief Andy Petree. After Pressley ran just one race for his new owner, he was released, but able to hook onto a ride with Diamond Ridge Motorsports. Pressley just ran ten races for Diamond Ridge in 1997, posting a best finish of 14th, when he was suddenly fired from the ride. While he waited for a Cup ride to appear, Pressley returned to the Busch ranks, running the #47 Ford for ST Motorsports, and finished out the year with three top tens. Over in Cup, he joined the #77 Jasper Motorsports team, which became one of the more popular tandems in the Cup circuit among fans.
Following his abbreviated Cup run in 1997, Pressley returned full-time in 1998 with the Jasper team, where he posted a then career-best third place finish at Texas Motor Speedway. Despite being replaced temporarily by Hut Stricklin due to injuries, Pressley finished 32nd in points that year. 1999 was a struggle however, as Pressley and company failed to qualify six times that season, and often had trouble finishing races. Following the addition of Ryan Pemberton in 2000, Pressley was able to up his position in points to 25th. In 2001, he had five top-tens, nearly won the inaugural Tropicana 400 before finishing in second, and finished 25th in points handing the driving duties to the car for the road course events to Boris Said.
[edit] Recent Years
At the end of 2001, Pressley was released from Jasper, and he tackled on a new venture, the Craftsman Truck Series. He signed with Bobby Hamilton Racing and won his Truck Series debut at Daytona International Speedway. He also ran the season opening Daytona 500 in Cup for what was the last race for Melling Racing, finishing 22nd. In 2003, Pressley moved to HT Motorsports in the Trucks, finishing 12th in points. He returned to the Busch Series to drive the 47 again for ST Motorsports, finishing in the top-ten twice, before moving back to the trucks with HT in 2005, finishing 20th in the standings.
Robert will be racing in the Old School Racing Champion’s Tour in 2008 (OSRCT) is a new racing series debuting in 2008 that will have retired and semi-retired champion drivers competing in a 10 race regular season schedule followed by a “Last Chance Race” and a “Championship Race”.
[edit] External links
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