BUSCH: Edwards confirmed as Champ.

Having had a lead of more than 850 points over his nearest rival at one point during the season there was no doubt that Carl Edwards would be crowned the 2007 NASCAR Busch Series Champion in the final year of the series with Busch as the title sponsor. However his dominance in the standings took nothing away from the celebrations as the former supply teacher finally sealed his first championship in any of NASCAR's big leagues.

Edwards only needed to finish 36th in Saturday's O'Reilly Challenge provided his sole remaining rival David Reutimann won the race and led the most laps. However after his victory in Memphis last week Reutimann couldn't replicate his winning form at the 1.5-mile Texas Motor Speedway in his Michael Waltrip Racing Toyota and could only finish one lap down in 18th position meaning that an eleventh place finish was more than enough for Edwards to clinch the title with two races to spare.

The 28 year-old Missouri based driver has controlled the Busch Series points standings virtually from the first race of the year in Daytona. With the series increasingly being dominated by visiting Nextel Cup drivers and teams (Buschwhackers) Edwards and his #60 Roush-Fenway squad quickly capitalised on their status as one of the few Nextel Cup outfits running the entire Busch slate to open a huge lead in the standings.

Thirteen top ten finishes, including four wins, in the first 15 races of the year for Edwards basically ended the title chase by the time the series left the Nashville Superspeedway in early June although seven finishes of 25th or lower in the nine races leading up to Saturday's event in Texas almost artificially kept the championship race alive into the closing weeks of the year

Nextel Cup Rookie of the Year contender Reutimann finally clinched his first win of the season last weekend in Memphis and bring the points deficit to near the 500 point mark but he still to win the last three races and hope Edwards struck trouble in the early going of each one to give Toyota a title in its maiden Busch season.

The fact that Edwards and Reutimann currently sit 1-2 in the points table with David Ragan, the only other Cup Series driver doing all 35 Busch races sitting fifth overall says a lot about the current state of the championship that will become the NASCAR Nationwide Series in 2008 and beyond. However the fact that outgoing champion Kevin Harvick, who won Saturday's race in Texas, can run fourth in points having only started 24 of the 33 races held so far this season says a lot more and with moves afoot to somehow curb the slide of the series, which has seen many of its non Cup Series teams fold in the past five years, Edwards' title could become one of the final remnants of the Buschwhacking era.