Who is Building the Chassis these Days?

NB Arnold's discussion topic about famous sayings on racecars made me think about Banjo Matthews and his Banjo's Performance Center in Arden, NC. His trademark sign and all his invoices said, "Where money buys speed.. how fast do you want to go?" Between 1974-1985, Banjo built cars won an astounding 72% of Cup races! When I first started going in Cup shops in 1981, most of them had surface plates that were gathering dust. Banjo was building the bulk of the chassis. These were rear steer. Hutcherson-Pagan in Charlotte was also building chassis and upstart Mike Laughlin in Simpsonville, SC was gaining a reputation with his front steer cars, favored by such drivers as DW. Banjo passed away prematurely at 64. When I used to go over there his son, Jody was trying to manage the business. I worked for a short time for one rookie car owner who paid the Simpsonville operation upfront in cash for two 1986 Ford T-birds. Guess they thought they'd found a bird's nest on the ground. The only way we ever got those cars out of Laughlin's was to send our own crew there to hang sheet metal and mud the cars.

Anyway, my curiosity question is this... are the teams back to building their own cars these days or what?

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"Any Day is Good for Stock Car Racing"
updated by @dave-fulton: 03/22/17 05:10:14AM

Interesting topic and I don't know the answer but with Hendrick employing 500 people I can't imagine them not building their own chassis, that's a good size factory in any state.

With the current tolerances, I suspect NASCAR is supplying some portion of these cars...chassis, body components....etc.

Jim R. inquiring minds want to know...LOL!

Jim, I believe the major teams build their own cars, but take them to Nascar to be certified. Correct?

Mike Beam & Iwere actually stranded together on an airplane at the SeaTac airport in July 1986 with our plane tickets to NC and credit cards cancelled when a deal with one of those cars I mentioned from Laughlin's went sour. Delta actually tried to pull us off the airplane, but I had enough credit on another card to buy Mike and I a ticket back to Greenville-Spartanburg and then drive him home to NC. I had just hired Mike (he and Ithought) to be the Team Manager for Derrike Cope's 1986 Cup Rookie campaign we were running out of Campobello, SC and we'd gone to Seattle to run a special event Winston West race with Derrike at Evergreen sponsored by his Rookie Cup car owner, Warren Razore andand one of his companies,Western Peterbilt. When we got to Seattle, Razore told Mike and I he was cancelling the Cup program and Mike and I told him what he could do with his Winston West program and went back to the airport without ever going to Evergreen Raceway. I have tremendous respect for Mike Beam. He is a class act and nice fellow to boot. I always enjoyed Mike's stories of campaigning the LMS car for Butch Lindley. I also have tremendous respect for Derrike. As we all learn, racing is full of plenty of crooks, though. That particular car owner later died from cancer.


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"Any Day is Good for Stock Car Racing"