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Making his mark Cagnazzi Racing team is thriving in NHRA's pro stock division DAVID POOLE
MOORESVILLE -- Once in a while, a race fan walks into the Cagnazzi Racing shop in Lakeside Business Park and finds something he wasn't expecting.
"You can see the look on their face," Victor Cagnazzi says. "It's like, `How did this get here?' "
What a visitor sees is a pro stock dragster, a surprise to someone who didn't look closely at the building sign and thinks he's visiting Chip Ganassi's NASCAR operation.
Cagnazzi Racing competes with two cars in the National Hot Rod Association's pro stock division, and is doing so quite effectively this year. Jeg Coughlin Jr. has won twice and is second in the standings after 15 events, with teammate Dave Connolly just five points back in third after winning three times.
With two events left before the first cut in the NHRA's new "Countdown" championship format, both Coughlin and Connolly have clinched spots in the top eight that allow them to advance into a four-race battle for four positions. The top four after Richmond in October then move into a two-race title showdown.
"I loved the idea of the Countdown at the beginning of the year," Cagnazzi says. "It's exciting. But recently I have come to realize it's going to tear my stomach up."
Cagnazzi's team has emerged as a chief rival for the dominant pro stock team in recent drag-racing history, the two-car team of Greg Anderson and Jason Line that has won the past four pro stock championships. That team also is based in Mooresville.
"We sort of have a little thing between us and Greg's team," Cagnazzi, 47, says. "It's like, `OK, which side of the bridge does the trophy go to this week?' "
The Ken Black-owned team that Anderson and Line drive is on the east side of the bridge over Interstate 77 at Exit 36, in a shop near the Mooresville Dragway. Cagnazzi's team is on the west side, in the business park that once housed many top NASCAR teams. The Roush-Yates engine shop, in fact, is still diagonally
across Rolling Hills Road from Cagnazzi's place.
As for how it got here, that's a pretty interesting story in itself.
Cagnazzi's father, Victor Sr., started a printing business in Long Island, N.Y., in 1968. It grew steadily, and Victor Jr. and three brothers all went to work there.When Victor Sr. ran into health problems and had to pull back, as the eldest son, Victor Jr. was in line to take over. But Victor Jr. knew his strength
came in sales, not in running the company. After careful consideration, Bob Cagnazzi became chief executive officer while Victor remained in sales. Christopher became the chief financial officer and Stephen ran the technical side of things, which soon became critically important.
The company was doing around $4 million in business annually when one of its largest customers, a major insurance company, told the Cagnazzis that it would be going "paperless" the following year.
Before long, the family's printing business became Integrated Systems Group, which eventually helped major banks and brokerage houses in New York City integrate their systems as the computers age took charge. By the time the sons sold the company in 2001, annual revenues topped $70 million.
Victor, meanwhile, was into drag racing. He worked his way up to an NHRA truck series, but that went away after his first year as a driver. He wanted to get into pro stock, which runs on gasoline and not the nitro used in top fuel and funny cars, and through friends, wound up visiting the Charlotte area for NASCAR's
all-star race in 2002.
"My wife and I spent three or four days driving around, and about halfway through the first day we realized that if you have a team that runs on four tires and gasoline this was the place to be," Cagnazzi said.
His experience in sales convinced him that sponsorships would be harder to come by if he was selling himself, at more than 40, as driver. But other aspects of the sport appealed to him. Members of his father's family worked as engineers and aerodynamicists in aircraft industry, and Victor Jr. had an aptitude for
mechanical engineering.
The basic design of a pro stock dragster's chassis is 20 years old, and Cagnazzi read an article in which legendary driver Warren Johnson predicted it is in that area where major gains in the division might soon be made. Cagnazzi took that to heart, and in the building it has occupied since 2003 his team now is the
only pro stock team that builds its own chassis and engines in house.
"Right now, we're doing everything we can to make sure we have engines and cars and everything stacked up for the Countdown," he said. "We can't have a blip because of mechanical failure. We can't afford that."
A press clipping hangs on the wall in the lobby of Cagnazzi's shop, a story about the first time the team was the fastest qualifier in an NHRA national event.
"We used to worry about just qualifying," Cagnazzi says. "Then, you start working your way out of the bottom half of the field. You win a round or two and then, finally, everybody starts to get on the same page and do the same things for the same reasons. You qualify first a time or two and then one
day you're third fastest and it's like, `Dang, what's wrong.' "
Then, you realize you're about to battle for a championship
And you find yourself wondering how you got there.
IN MY OPINION David Poole
Contact Cagnazzi Racing E-mail: info@vjcr.com Phone: (704) 663-0846
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