HOMESTEAD, Fla. — Carl Edwards may have been the best driver in the NASCAR Busch Series after winning the championship two weeks ago at Texas Motor Speedway, but Richard Childress Racing proved to be the best team.
RCR clinched the owner’s title in the Busch Series when Jeff Burton won Saturday night’s Ford 300 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
It created a split championship with one team boasting the driver’s title (Roush Fenway Racing) and another the team championship (RCR) because two drivers competed in the same car this season.
Scott Wimmer drove the No. 29 Chevrolet 16 times, with Burton driving it 18 times.
Burton, along with teammates Kevin Harvick and Clint Bowyer, won 13 times for Richard Childress Racing. It was Childress’s 11th NASCAR championship, which includes six Cup titles with the late Dale Earnhardt, four Busch titles and one Craftsman Truck championship with Mike Skinner in 1995.
“I feel somehow I let the team down,” said Edwards’s team owner, Jack Roush. “I’m not sure what I did different from helping Carl win the driver’s championship to not being able to win the owner’s championship myself. But I’ll have to work on that. I missed something along the way.
“But congratulations to Richard Childress and what he did with his bunch. They certainly put cars out there that were fast and a number of people drove them and did a real nice job with them.”
Childress celebrated this championship like all the others and admitted while it’s unique that two different teams have championship trophies, it doesn’t detract from either operation.
“It’s just racing,” Childress said. “That’s the reason I think NASCAR has two champions, an owner and a driver, in case a situation like this comes up, where if a driver gets hurt or something.
“When we had our meeting with the guys at the shop back in January, this is one of the goals we set was to win races and win a championship. When we do have a split year like we did this year, it gives everybody an opportunity to have something to really go after and do besides just winning races, and I was really proud of everybody.”
Burton believes it shouldn’t take away from Edwards’s accomplishments as the driver champion.
“I’m sure that in their work they would prefer to have won both,” Burton said of Edwards and Roush Fenway Racing. “That’s just how it is. Carl would say the same thing. But Carl and his team have done a really good job. They have run well, won a lot of races. I wouldn’t call it a hollow feeling, but I’m sure they would have preferred to have won both.”
The split duties between drivers also allowed a driver such as Wimmer ample opportunity to drive a top race car. Wimmer used to be a Nextel Cup regular but has had the opportunity to prove his value in the Busch Series.
“I think it’s really important to the sport to have owner’s championships and it really reflects on the team to the drivers,” Wimmer said. “No matter who Pat Smith (crew chief) puts in his race cars and Mr. Childress puts in his race cars, they are going to be fast and run up front and he should be rewarded for that.
“And that’s really what it’s all about. It’s about the team and the people around it.”