Father's experience helping Coleman Pressley navigate move into NASCAR
By Mike Hembree - Associate Editor
Monday, October 19, 2009
Coleman Pressley is patiently working his way into NASCAR.
David Griffin
NASCAR Scene
For Robert Pressley, once labeled as a can’t-miss Sprint Cup driver, the run at the big time did not work out.
For Coleman Pressley, Robert’s 20-year-old son, there are lessons to be learned. He’s edging into NASCAR major-series racing with a few starts in the Nationwide Series this year, and he has a long history as an observer to build upon. He watched his dad at almost every turn.
“He’s been at every race I’ve probably ever run,” Robert Pressley says. “The times I thought he wasn’t paying attention, he was. He knows what he has to do. He knows this is tough. Usually, you get one shot. Some get a second. He knows he has to take full advantage of the opportunities he gets. He knows he can be here one day and gone the next.”
Coleman has raced in four Nationwide events this year and failed to finish any because of mechanical problems. He hopes to attempt a full-schedule run either next year or in 2011, the choice largely depending on the economy and the availability of sponsor money.
He knows there is a particular spotlight on sons of drivers in racing, but he says he is working on finding his way while dealing with that eventuality.
“I’ve seen everything from people who have made it to people on their way to making it to people who haven’t,” he says. “I don’t really base myself off them. I just do the best I can and let the chips fall where they may.
“I put a lot of pressure on myself to run good. I think what people think about drivers’ sons is that you have a golden road ahead of you and that everything is given to you. You don’t have to work for anything. That’s not true. Yeah, we got some good help from friendships my dad has made along the way, but we’re racing like any other backyard team does in Late Models, and we’re making sure we work for it.”
Coleman’s father turned a successful career in what is now the Nationwide (then Busch) Series into what was at the time a coveted Cup ride. He replaced the retiring and ultrapopular Harry Gant as driver for the Leo Jackson Motorsports team, and big things were expected when they ran their first full season in 1995, when Coleman was 7 years old.
The combination never clicked. The Jackson team had begun a slow decline, and Pressley, despite winning 10 times in Nationwide racing, failed to crack victory lane in Cup. He ended his full-time driving career in 2005 in NASCAR’s Truck series, where he scored a pair of victories in 2002.
“I can say I made a lot of wrong choices along the way, with opportunities I had that I didn’t take, but I feel like I did a lot with what we had to do with,” Robert Pressley says. “We had some good runs and opportunities to knock on the door to win races, but the one thing I’ve told Coleman is that I’ll never say that I regret any of the decisions I made. Maybe they weren’t the right ones at the time, but we made the best of what we had all the way through.
“I guess it’s easy for somebody to sit around on Monday morning and talk about a football game that was played Sunday and how they would have done it. I feel like I made all the right decisions.
“We had some good years with Jasper Racing [in Cup, after the Jackson team] before I went into trucks and won some races. At least I knew I could still drive. We had some good success there.”
Coleman Pressley followed his father (and grandfather, Asheville, N.C., legend Bob Pressley) onto short tracks and targeted driving as a career. It was time, in 2005, for Robert to park as a driver and concentrate on boosting his son.
“I was not at my peak any more,” he says. “There were a lot of young kids coming in. Coleman was coming along, and who better to work with him than me.”
Coleman is driving for JTG Daugherty team owner Brad Daugherty, who also put Robert in top-of-the-line Nationwide cars as he was building his career.
“Brad was at the hospital the day after Coleman was born,” Robert says. “Here it is 20 years later, and he’s driving for him.”
Currently a full-time driver in the United Auto Racing Association, Coleman says he wants to race in the Nationwide Series as a regular as soon as possible but takes a realistic overview.
“It is hard to wait, but you have to realize the way the economy is,” he says. “I want to move up. It’s a matter of getting the financial backing. Whenever the opportunity comes, I know I’m going to be 100 percent ready.
“When I turned 6 years old and got my first go-kart, I knew racing is what I wanted to do. I tried other sports – baseball, basketball – in high school, and I enjoyed it, but I didn’t have the passion for it like I did for racing. During my sophomore year, I said I’m going to make it racing. I went straight to work at JTG out of high school. I’ve done everything from building shocks to tearing down cars to sweeping floors. I drive the pit practice car. I’m an extra set of hands.”
Now it’s mostly a matter of waiting until the right circumstances merge for Coleman to get his best shot.
“From the day he started, he’s done better than I expected,” Robert says. “He adapts to so much so quickly. The first time he ran Late Model, I was trying to coach him along, but, man, it was like every time I got ready to say something he had already done it.
“I know he gets impatient waiting, but he has taken my advice on everything and waited it out. He’s a lot more patient than his daddy has ever been.”
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4 responses to "Father's experience helping Coleman Pressley navigate move into NASCAR". Post a Comment.
rmdunn3 said:
Oct 19, 2009 at 6:50 PMWhat a great story, I wish Coleman and his Dad all the luck in the world. Can't wait to see him in a Nationwide car.
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» Confirm Abuse Reporttinynascarfan said:
Oct 19, 2009 at 9:40 PMi hope this kid gets a real shot, even a joe nemechek ride for a few races and he might show what talent he has, he is one of the 100 top drivers in the world, i know because ive seen him, and if you put him in a real ride in the nationwide series he will contend for wins, but in a lesser ride, he will contend for top 10's.
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» Confirm Abuse ReportNickDizzle7 said:
Oct 19, 2009 at 11:04 PM"Coleman has raced in four Nationwide events this year and failed to finish any because of mechanical problems." Umm...What's wrong with saying the team has to start and park? It's the truth.
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» Confirm Abuse Reporttimmytoad1 said:
Oct 21, 2009 at 2:55 AMDude looks like Hank Parker Jr. He was a real up and commer until he lost his sponsor, he was even a race winner too in the Bush series.
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