Edwards wins Busch title

Edwards just needed to finish 36th or better to mathematically win the championship and ran a trouble-free race, completing most of the distance in the top ten and finally crossing the line in a solid 11th place, which was more than enough for him.

"It feels great," said a relieved Edwards. "We had an unbelievable first half of the season where we gained so many points and I'm so grateful to be driving this car. To win it here at Texas, you know, this is a track that has a lot of good memories for me and it's a really good feel.

"Hopefully this is one of many. We're going to do it again next year; we're going to try to do even better. We had a lot of really great fortune and had a lot of bad fortune this year and it took us a bit longer than we thought but I'm just very grateful to all the people who gave me opportunities. I'm glad to be here."

This is Edwards' first NASCAR national series' title, which comes in his third full season in the Busch Series. He had been rookie of the year and third in the championship in his maiden season, finished runner-up to Kevin Harvick last year, and clinched the title this season scoring four wins thus far.

Outgoing champion Kevin Harvick took his sixth win of the season driving RCR's No. 21 Chevrolet. He inherited the lead from Greg Biffle with 34 laps to go when the Roush Fenway driver pitted with a suspected puncture that his crew didn't find in the end.

Harvick easily managed the four second gap to Hendrick's Kyle Busch in the closing laps, taking his fourth Busch win at Texas, which moves him to second in the all-time Busch winners list, ahead of two-time champion Jack Ingram, the first ever driver to win the series.

"This track has been great to everyone in this RCR program," said Harvick. "It is quite an honour just to be up there with Jack Ingram and Mark Martin and Sam Ard and all the guys that made this series what it is. They gave us a place to race and get to do the thing that we like to do. It's pretty special just to be up on that list."

Kyle Busch finished the race second after recovering from a tyre problem, which dropped him down the order. Denny Hamlin was third, Clint Bowyer fourth and Matt Kenseth rounded up the top-five ahead of Brad Kaselowski who was the best of the non-Nextel Cup regulars.

Tony Stewart finished seventh, having dominated most of the race completing 114 out of 200 laps in the lead. However he was forced to make a lengthy pitstop for repairs to the right front fender of his No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Chevrolet, after picking up damage following contact with Kyle Krisiloff.

Pole-sitter David Reutimann dropped from the lead early on and was then forced to pit with a flat right front tyre that almost sent him into the wall. He finished the race in 18th place and could possibly secure the runner up spot in the championship in a week's time at Phoenix.

The race was one of the most uneventful of the season with only four caution periods. The second one was caused by Sam Hornish Jr, who spun exiting turn four on lap 22, causing damage to his right front fender after a tyre blew up following his spin. He finished 31st and six laps down.

Dario Franchitti's second Busch Series race was not as eventful as his debut a week ago at Memphis. He managed to stay out of trouble but lost a lap before the halfway mark and didn't have enough pace the get back on the lead lap. He finished 25th, three laps down on the winner but a good 197 laps more experienced.

Pos  Driver                  Make        Laps
 1.  Kevin Harvick           Chevrolet   200
 2.  Kyle Busch              Chevrolet   200
 3.  Denny Hamlin            Chevrolet   200
 4.  Clint Bowyer            Chevrolet   200
 5.  Matt Kenseth            Ford        200
 6.  Brad Keselowski         Chevrolet   200
 7.  Tony Stewart            Chevrolet   200
 8.  Jeff Burton             Chevrolet   200
 9.  Tony Raines             Chevrolet   200
10.  Stephen Leicht          Ford        200
11.  Carl Edwards            Ford        200
12.  Jason Leffler           Toyota      200
13.  Robby Gordon            Ford        200
14.  Bobby Hamilton Jr       Ford        200
15.  Casey Mears             Chevrolet   199
16.  Greg Biffle             Ford        199
17.  David Ragan             Ford        199
18.  David Reutimann         Toyota      199
19.  Kelly Bires             Ford        199
20.  Michael McDowell        Toyota      198
21.  Mike Wallace            Chevrolet   197
22.  Jason Keller            Chevrolet   197
23.  Steve Wallace           Dodge       197
24.  Elliott Sadler          Dodge       197
25.  Dario Franchitti        Dodge       197
26.  Casey Atwood            Ford        197
27.  Kyle Krisiloff          Ford        196
28.  Bryan Clauson           Dodge       195
29.  Bobby Labonte           Chevrolet   195
30.  Marcos Ambrose          Ford        195
31.  Sam Hornish Jr          Dodge       194
32.  Robert Richardson, II   Chevrolet   193
33.  JJ Yeley                Chevrolet   188
34.  Richard Johns           Ford        188
35.  Brad Baker              Ford        171
36.  Mark Green              Chevrolet   170
37.  Brent Sherman           Toyota      161
38.  Stanton Barrett         Chevrolet   131
39.  Morgan Shepherd         Dodge        33
40.  Eric McClure            Chevrolet    18
41.  Kertus Davis            Chevrolet    12
42.  Jeremy Clements         Chevrolet     4
43.  Mike Bliss              Dodge         3