Q&A: Robert Pressley.

Robert Pressley, driver of the No. 77 Jasper Engines Taurus, will be making his 200th career NASCAR Winston Cup start today. He spoke about the milestone before Saturday morning's practice session and also talked about his plans for next season:

Q:
Robert Pressley - #77 - Jasper Engines Taurus - What do you think about the 200 starts at this level?

Robert Pressley:
That's a pretty big number and even though we don't have a win in those 200 starts, at least we got our first runner-up finish earlier this year at Chicago. It's pretty important to me that I've had 200 races in Winston Cup. I haven't done the things I've wanted to, but I've always improved every year so that's a good thing. I hoped I would have had a win before this, but I can't think of a better place to do it than right here at Phoenix. We've always run good at Rockingham, so we're looking forward to next week too, but we've had a good practice and qualifying session here and I think that would make a great story to win your first Winston Cup race in your 200th start.

Q:
Did you always want to reach this level of racing when you started your career in Asheville?

RP:
I never really dreamed about going Winston Cup racing when I was racing around Asheville. In fact, I never really looked or thought much about that when I was running in the Busch Grand National Series in the early nineties. It was always something where I was content with the Busch Series and the Late Model Stock Series. I was pretty happy just doing what I was doing because I was winning races all the time and when you're winning you really don't think about venturing out to other things. What got my attention the most was that once I got out there and teams started calling me. It was probably around 1992 or '93 when I started to hear from various people who wanted me to come over to Winston Cup, and I turned down three or four deals before I ever even sat down and talked to anybody about moving to this level.

Q:
For not thinking it, 200 starts is pretty impressive?

RP:
I've been here 200 races now and this is the only thing I haven't conquered - winning a Winston Cup race. This is the toughest form of racing there is and what I'd like to do is stay here and get in about 50 or 60 more races to see if we can become a winner in this series.

Q:
You're looking for a new ride for next year. What is your thought process right now?

RP:
The Truck Series is not out of the question, the Busch Series is not out of the question and the Cup Series is not out of the question, but what I want to do is win races. Whatever series I go to next year, I want to be competitive and I want to win races.

Q:
Do you feel good about the future?

RP:
I feel real good. I think the future is gonna be pretty good with whatever I do. I want to race, but the biggest thing I just don't want to be listed as a Winston Cup driver, I want to be in a competitive car that can come out here every week and go for wins.

Q:
How do you fell about what you've done with this 77 team in four years?

RP:
I don't think there is any other team in this garage that has come as far as this team has over the years. That's a big accomplishment and now I just hope we can cap off what we started before the end of the year and that's to win a race.