Pro Stock team owner Victor Cagnazzi says that he used the same principles to build a successful drag racing operation that he did to develop a high-tech business that netted in excess of $70-million dollars worth of sales annually.

Cagnazzi quickly points out that it’s just a matter of applying the right people, resources, and technology to a clearly defined goal. Then you supplement it with hard work and the rest falls into place.

A New York Institute of Technology graduate, Cagnazzi made a career out of building small companies into large ones. The same could be said for his drag racing endeavors. It all began with an amateur start that eventually graduated to professional status.

Cagnazzi took a single Pro Stock team and built the program into one of the forerunners of the class with drivers Dave Connolly and Jeg Coughlin Jr.

Pro Stock team owner Victor Cagnazzi says that he used the same principles to build a successful drag racing operation that he did to develop a high-tech business that netted in excess of $70-million dollars worth of sales annually.

Cagnazzi quickly points out that it’s just a matter of applying the right people, resources, and technology to a clearly defined goal. Then you supplement it with hard work and the rest falls into place.

A New York Institute of Technology graduate, Cagnazzi made a career out of building small companies into large ones. The same could be said for his drag racing endeavors. It all began with an amateur start that eventually graduated to professional status.

Cagnazzi took a single Pro Stock team and built the program into one of the forerunners of the class with drivers Dave Connolly and Jeg Coughlin Jr.

The 2007 season has been a good one by all accounts. Except for a sponsor hiccup with Bravo Foods earlier this month, Cagnazzi and his Mooresville, North Carolina-based shop has kept on keeping on.

In St. Louis, Connolly and Coughlin reached the final round.

We caught up with Cagnazzi in the days leading up to the NHRA Summernationals and asked him about the Bravo Foods snafu, his bid to dethrone Ken Black Racing, and a few other hot topics.

CP - WOULD YOU SAY THE LAST MONTH HAS BEEN AN EMOTIONAL ROLLERCOASTER FOR YOU?

VC – I can’t say that it was an emotional rollercoaster, nor can I say it was something unexpected in the last couple of weeks. Part of it showed itself a little bit before Atlanta. When any business has the potential to lose 70% of its revenue, a lot of restructuring and a lot of things must be put in place. Different ways of momentum have to change so that you can move on with the goal at hand, which for us is putting both Dave Connolly and Jeg Coughlin, Jr. into the championship.

Emotionally? Having Evan Knoll there to help at any time and knowing the folks at Jeg’s were interested in taking the sponsorship over didn’t make it emotional. It just made it having to do a lot of things in a short amount of time.

CP - JEG’S CAME ALONG AT THE RIGHT TIME?

VC - I’d like to say that they absolutely did. I think for a lot of reasons. First because the way the car has been running and the way Jeggie has been driving, there are benefits to the car. I think there is also a lot of value there for them also. I am happy they were able to see that value.

CP - SO WHAT EXACTLY HAPPENED WITH SLAMMERS?

VC - I don’t really know. With us -- I have no idea. I thought we did a very good job for them this year. I think just the whole restructuring of their company left them with decisions they had to make as far as cutting costs in certain areas. I guess the marketing is one of the areas they felt they had to cut back on. 

CP - REPORTS SURFACED COMPARING BRAVO FOODS AND OTHER FAILED STOCK DRAG RACING SPONSORS. YOU TOOK OFFENSE TO THAT. WHY?

VC – There were really no similarities between the companies that were referenced and Bravo Foods. Bravo Foods is a company striving to build a brand. With that, they had employees and product, manufacturing agreements, licenses and a lot of things. I’ve heard in the past that it takes sometimes costs $150 million to build a brand.

What I mean in building a brand is building a following for that brand name. There was no similarity between the organization referenced and Bravo Foods. Bravo Foods is a company that I feel has all the potential for success and they stumbled along the way in their restructuring and moving their business forward. 

CP - IN THE SEC FILINGS, IT SAID THAT YOU FILED SUIT AGAINST BRAVO FOODS TO COVER THE LOST PORTION OF YOUR SPONSORSHIP, HOW MUCH WILL THIS COURT CASE TAKE AWAY FROM YOUR FOCUS ON RACING?

VC – It won’t take anything away from it at all. The contract we have is specific. We are just going to let the lawyers handle it. It really won’t take any focus away from anything for us.

CP - IT TAKES A LOT OF FOCUS TO MAKE WAVES AGAINST THE KEN BLACK CARS. YOU AND YOUR GUYS SEEM PREPARED TO GO AFTER THEM.

VC – We are as focused as we always have been. They are an extremely strong team. You have to look at the fact that team has been together four or five years. They have tremendous momentum and work very hard. I personally admire everything they’ve done. We believe it is our job to put everything in place so that we can run with them and hopefully at a point and time in the future be able to consistently be someone that they will chase. Right now they are the leaders and they have been. They are not the four-time champions for nothing.

CP - LAST YEAR TEAM OWNER EVAN KNOLL MADE THE PROCLAMATION THAT BLACK’S CARS ARE THE JETSONS AND EVERYONE ELSE ARE THE FLINTSTONES. DID THAT ANGER YOU TO THE POINT IT MOTIVATED YOU? 

VC – It didn’t really anger me. His analogy of the two cartoon families [one from the future and the other from the Stone Age] was what it was. It couldn’t have motivated us any more than we were already motivated. I don’t get angry when someone says something that is accurate. I only get angry when something is inaccurate.

CP - DOES THE FINANCIAL RETURN ON PRO STOCK JUSTIFY THE MEANS? IN OTHER WORDS, IS THERE A VALID BUSINESS MODEL FOR PRO STOCK?

VC – I think there can be. I think it’s a long road to get there. The investment that is required is very substantial. We are competing against teams that have been established for probably a minimum of five years. If you look at Warren and Kurt Johnson, as well as Allen Johnson and his dad, you are looking at teams with 15 years or more in the game. There are a number of investments that we have to make that are substantial. Just the investment in equipment in getting the operation up and running – and the research and development, the personnel – which is the most important investment and makes it really a business. If you’re going to attract good people, you are going to want them comfortable in their surroundings.  

You have to show them a model different from the standard that might have been out there a few years when people raced for a hobby as opposed to people racing for a living.

CP - YOUR SHOP IS LOCATED IN MOORESVILLE, NORTH CAROLINA, IN THE HEART OF NASCAR COUNTRY. HOW MUCH OF NASCAR’S TECHNOLOGY IS GOING INTO YOUR TEAM?

VC – I would say quite a bit of it is. We have developed friendships with a lot of the people on teams down there. Some of the things are portable and can be transferred. Some can’t. I think the biggest gain is in concepts as opposed to actual pieces of technology. They spend millions and millions of dollars in research and technology with everything from engine dynamics to aerodynamics to suspensions to chassis. I think if we look at some of the things we are hoping to do in the future, the things they have invested in, some of those concepts I believe will be possible to work into the Pro Stock car. That should give us a bit of a competitive advantage.

CP - WILL THE NEW FORMAT ENABLE YOU GUYS TO BREAK THE KB STRONGHOLD ON THE CLASS? 

VC – That’s going to be hard to say. I think it is definitely exciting. From a standpoint of selling to sponsors, it has added a dynamic to it that is attractive to more companies that we have been talking to over the last year or so. They are starting to take notice of the championship chase and the way it is structured. They can see, for at least the cars running near the front and come Indy are in the top eight, the focus will be on those eight. When the Countdown goes to the last four, the media focus will increase even more.

I think from a sponsor acquisition point, it is really helping us to tell the story and show where the value is.

CP - YOU HAVE TWO OF THE FIERCEST GUNSLINGERS BEHIND THE WHEEL OF YOUR TEAM CARS. THAT HAS TO HELP ON THE TIMES YOU ARE BEHIND THE EIGHTBALL ON YOUR COMBINATION AT THE TRACK. 

VC – There’s no doubt about it. If you look at the first round in St. Louis, Jeg’s car was not performing as well as Dave’s. He drove the second round and semis into the finals. That’s a clear example of how someone can get up on the wheel and get it done when the car is not performing optimally.