“Carl, he's been a long-time friend from those days, and I think it's a true testament to the stepping stones of NASCAR. We both came from the weekly racing series, went through the regional touring series and he went to the truck series. Luckily I got the right phone call (from Childress) and went to the Nationwide Series. It's fun to be able to come back here, what, five, six years later and be able to race each other for championships. It really is fun.”
Though Edwards won seven races, his victory total couldn't match that of Busch, who won his tenth race of the season at Texas to tie Ard's record set during his championship run in 1983. As soon as he climbed from his car in Fort Worth, Busch announced plans to donate $100,000 to Ard, who is suffering from Alzheimer's disease and struggling to pay his medical bills.
Busch's ten wins capped an extremely strong season for Toyota, which culminated in the #20 Joe Gibbs Racing Camry winning the owners' championship with four drivers. Tony Stewart, Busch, Denny Hamlin and Joey Logano all won races in the car, with Stewart leading the way with five.
The season wasn't without its speed bumps for the Toyota camp, however.
In July, NASCAR amended engine rules for the series, based on dynamometer testing and effectively cut Toyota's horsepower. In August at Michigan, the #18 and #20 JGR teams were penalised severely for attempting to manipulate the dyno numbers. Nevertheless, with its crew chief and car chief suspended indefinitely by NASCAR, the #20 Camry still managed to win the owners' championship by twelve points over the No. 2.
Despite competing in only 19 of 35 races, Landon Cassill won the Raybestos Rookie of the Year Award on the strength of five top-ten finishes.
But the spotlight was on Bowyer, who won his first major NASCAR title. It wasn't until the sixth race of the season, a non-companion event at Nashville, that Bowyer took the championship lead for the first time. It was an advantage he would hold for the rest of the season.
by Reid Spencer/Sporting News
