"As the season went on, we just kept getting stronger and stronger and understanding the car better and better - from my standpoint of driving it to setting it up."

The fourth race in the Chase, at Talladega, was the start of Edwards' undoing. Up to that point, Edwards, Roush Fenway Racing teammate Greg Biffle (who picked up his only two wins of the year in the first two races of the Chase) and Johnson were contesting the championship on equal terms.

Bump-drafting through the third turn late in the Talladega race, Edwards spun Biffle and triggered a multicar wreck that damaged his chances as well as that of this teammate.

The ignition box failures the following week at Charlotte put Edwards so far behind that even his frenzied charge at the end of the season wasn't enough to catch Johnson, who cemented his title with a victory from the pole in the penultimate race at Phoenix.

It was a season of strength for Cup's strongest teams. Hendrick Motorsports, Roush Fenway Racing, Joe Gibbs Racing and Richard Childress Racing filled the Chase field with three drivers each. Though Ryan Newman won the 50th running of the Daytona 500 in February, only two other drivers who subsequently failed to qualify for the Chase would win races in 2008 - Kasey Kahne at Lowe's and Pocono and Kurt Busch in a rain-shortened event at New Hampshire.

The Chase played out against the backdrop of a severe economic downturn in which the auto industry has become one of the biggest question marks. Layoffs, in lieu of celebration, followed the close of the season at Homestead, as teams trimmed personnel, many hired for the 2007 season, when Cup teams had to compete simultaneously with old car/new car platforms.

As far as the championship went, however, there was no question.

"We got beat by a great champion," Edwards said after the final race.

by Reid Spencer/Sporting News