Ron Lewis photo

One of the biggest changes came when Cagnazzi made Todd Bevis an offer he couldn't refuse. Bevis hung a big closed-sign on his chassis shop in Tyler, Texas and moved the whole family to Mooresville, N.C. to head an exclusive car building operation for Cagnazzi. Now, instead of catering to several clients, Bevis answers to only one.

With his sights set on climbing to the top of Pro Stock, Cagnazzi aimed high and built an 18,000-square-foot chassis shop in the heart of NASCAR country.

"The reason we are where we are, is that it's the heartbeat of racing and there are hundreds of talented fabricators that we can draw from," Cagnazzi said of the new shop location in the area of Charlotte Motor Speedway.

"The more we can learn about the way a car works, then we feel we can improve upon it," Cagnazzi said. "I think this has given us the opportunity to build better cars."

Cagnazzi said he began his in-house car-building program in July of 2003 and calls their current car, "eight cars in one," explaining that "It's been a giant evolution from the time it hit the track until the time it is sitting there right now."

Cagnazzi said inspiration was drawn from NASCAR teams and he has modeled his program after their formula. But he admits the efficiency and cost at which established builders can produce a car puts programs like his slightly out of reach for the average Pro Stock racer.

"What we're doing is not less expensive; it's more costly," Cagnazzi said.

Chassis builder Bevis said the program is running smoothly, but he feels the pressure that comes from being a one-man show. "In my opinion, the performance of the vehicle becomes more scrutinized," he admitted.

The ability to make quick changes to the car is one of the advantages that come from running a one-team car program. "If we want to change something, we just bring it in the shop and do it," Bevis explained. "And then if it's an advantage, no one else has it because it doesn't get outside of the people who are privy to the information."

Another advantage is the ability to stay focused on one car. This allows Bevis to concentrate on one problem without the distraction of dealing with several customer cars.

Bevis said he thinks this will continue as a trend in the class, but only if it produces results. "The whole industry is so performance oriented," Bevis said. "If it doesn't perform, then it won't continue."

Bevis said it all comes down to performance per dollar and believes the team may be able to extract more performance per dollar from the car than from the engine. He explained that sometimes the car is more advanced than the engine, and other times the engine is ahead of the car.

"Right now, our engine is ahead of the car," Bevis said.