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Monday, January 28

Robert Pressley
By Jerry Bonkowski
ESPN.com

Team: Melling Racing
Car/sponsor/make: No. 92 BrandSource Dodge Intrepid

Robert Pressley
Pressley

STATS

Year
Rank
Wins
Poles
Top-5s
Best finish

2001 25 0 0 1 2nd, Chicago

Career 0 0 5 2nd, Chicago

2001 recap
The good: Pressley recorded his second consecutive season of finishing 25th in the Winston Cup standings in his fourth full season of racing the No. 77 car for Jasper Motorsports.

Season highlight: Pressley's top performance was a career-high second-place finish at the inaugural Tropicana 400 in suburban Joliet last July, finishing behind winner Kevin Harvick. Prior to that, Pressley's top career finish had been a third-place finish in 1998.

The bad: After Pressley finished 25th in 2000, Jasper Motorsports team owner Doug Bawel had high hopes for both Pressley and the team in 2001. Unfortunately, Pressley could do no better than to repeat in 25th spot when all was said and done at the end of last season. Feeling that the team was stagnant and wasn't making enough upward progress, Bawel released Pressley and hired Dave Blaney away from the No. 93 Amoco Racing team owned by Bill Davis. Pressley's hopes of remaining a full-time driver on the Winston Cup series faded as time went on, leaving him to sign a deal to race for Bobby Hamilton on the 23-race NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series for 2002. Perhaps more than anything, 2002 will be a season that Pressley needs to go out and redeem his reputation, finish high in the CTS and hopefully attract attention that will garner him a full-time ride back in the Cup series in 2003.

Season lowlight: Pressley's top two qualifying efforts in 2001, starting fifth at both Martinsville, Va., in the spring and at Phoenix in the fall, both ended on extremely sour notes. Pressley finished exactly half (250) of the 500 laps of the Virginia 500 at Martinsville only to fall out in 40th place due to overheating problems with his car's engine, while exiting in 42nd position after 239 laps in the 312-lap Checker Auto Parts 500 at Phoenix due to a crash.

Robert Pressley
Pressley had five top-10 finishes in 2001.

Key stat: Pressley has seemingly been poised on the threshold of success ever since he fought it out with Ricky Craven for Winston Cup Rookie of the Year in 1995. Unfortunately, Pressley came out on the losing end of that battle, and he has continued to struggle ever since. He was the hand-picked replacement for the retiring Harry Gant, but lasted less than two seasons with that team. He eventually found his way to Jasper Motorsports, but his inconsistency from race to race and season to season (32nd, 39th, 25th and 25th in four seasons) never made the team a legitimate threat -- hence his release at the end of the 2001 campaign.

2002 outlook
What needs to be done: Having formerly driven a Coca-Cola delivery truck prior to becoming a full-time race car driver, Pressley goes back to his truck roots somewhat this season, having signed to drive the full NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series in the No. 18 Bobby Hamilton-owned Racing Dodge. But there could be considerably more on the horizon for the veteran Pressley, particularly back on the Winston Cup side. He has agreed to drive the No. 92 Dodge, to be sponsored by BrandSource, in the season-opening Daytona 500 for team owner Mark Melling. If Pressley has a strong showing like he had in last season's 500 (finished 14th), there's a possibility that BrandSource could extend the sponsorship for several more races, or possibly make a season-long commitment if other well-financed associate sponsors come aboard.

Prediction: While this will be Pressley's first full-time foray into the Craftsman Truck Series, his experience acquired in both Winston Cup and the Busch Series should serve him well to finish at least in the top-15 in the truck series. If Melling is successful in acquiring enough sponsorship to make the No. 92 Dodge Intrepid a full-time entry for the upcoming season, Pressley will be a busy man by driving in both series. If he does get a full-time Cup ride with Melling, Pressley has the ability to notch his third consecutive top-25 finish in 2002. If not, he'll likely continue to drive selected major races for Melling such as Daytona, Talladega and anywhere else the team can acquire funding for.

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