Busch, Tryson succeeding against odds of breakup (cont'd)

"We didn't want anything to be different, but we knew we'd have to handle it differently. But it takes focus to get it done and that's a pretty good statement for our team. It's easier to do that when engineering stepped up like they did [last] weekend, our motor department was solid and all the way around we had a smooth weekend you don't want to forget."

Busch then walked back into Texas' Victory Lane to finish shooting photos, saying over his shoulder, "You don't ever want to forget how all this is done."

"We're a little bit farther back than we'd have liked to have been," Tryson said. "If some stuff hadn't have happened [at Talladega] we'd be in pretty good shape, but those things happen and now we're just excited to win races.

"That's what it's all about, there are two more and we can try to win both of those. These guys are loyal guys and everybody wanted to win real bad. I knew none of those guys were going to give up on me and I know I wasn't going to give up on them and we were going to hang in there, because we're a pretty tight-knit group.

"It'll be a sad day at Homestead when I've got to leave, but everybody's got to do what's best for them, unfortunately."

Friday at Phoenix, Busch said he definitely didn't feel like their victory to any degree was an "I told you so" to anyone who doubted their ability to get it done.

"We don't feel like that, and I don't think we have to take that approach at all," Busch said. "The way that Pat and I mutually feel, with each other is it's the same as if we were still together, even after these next two races. So it's not like 'I told you so,' it's just that we didn't want [the split] to be a distraction with the crew chief leaving the team at the end of the year -- and that's all that's been written about.

"So in the end, you can say it's that, but we're just out here doing our job, working as hard as we can -- I still go back and kick myself a little bit for Talladega, with how we finished there."

If the 30th place earned at Talladega, thanks to a late accident, is removed from his Chase ledger, Busch has an average finish of 8.1. It's nowhere near the stunning 3.4 average Chase leader Jimmie Johnson has in his best seven Chase races, but it still gives Busch some satisfaction.

"If we would have finished better [at Talladega] we might be in a little more reasonable reach of the points lead, right now," Busch said of his 171-point deficit to Johnson with two races remaining. "So we need help, but we still need to run strong."

Busch, who won at Phoenix in 2005 and was third and second in his past two starts on the tricky mile oval, said with his history of racing Southwest Tour late models and the Truck Series before making his Cup debut in November 2000, "it feels like I've got more laps around here than any other track on the circuit, so it would be special to win here at Phoenix, just being close to home [Las Vegas] and with my relatives out here."

Wallace just said that, despite Tryson only spending one weekly meeting at the shop, what the Penske team had achieved proved the work at the track was most important.

"It goes to prove that you've got to build the cars at the shop, but man I'll tell you what -- you've got to make it happen at the race track," the 1989 Cup champion said. "To me, in my career 70 percent of it happened at the race track. Yeah, you've got to be prepared and you've got to have a good motor, but once you get it here you've got to get it all tuned up, you've got to get it handling right, you've got to have fast pit stops and the driver's got to drive it right.

"And all those things don't happen at the shop. The shop's very important, don't get me wrong, but [the track] is where all the stuff really happens."

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• Busch puts 2 car on front row at Phoenix