'A champion is a champion and that's all there is to it' (cont'd)

Edwards admits it isn't simple and wasn't easy for him, either -- not when you're a competitor. And Shrub, God bless him, is nothing if not one competitive SOB.

"At the time I didn't look at it probably the way I should have -- I didn't appreciate it as much as I should have," Edwards said when all the pictures were done, and he had a moment to reflect on the final Busch Series championship. "So looking back, it's something I'm really proud of, but when it happens you're thinking 'this is easy, this is no big deal, I should have won by more, we should have won the owners' championship or we won it, but...'

“

A champion is a champion and that's all there is to it, but week to week we all feel like we're the best drivers out there.

”

CARL EDWARDS

"But there is no 'but' -- you're the champion. I was the champion in 2007, but looking back on it I really appreciate it more now than I did then."

The scary thing is; it might not change a thing. Would he get credit or extra respect from his peers? Don't expect it.

"Aaah, I don't know if it's different; I don't know if that perception really changes," Edwards said. "Clint [Bowyer] won the championship last year and I don't think anything differently of him. We're competitors, we don't want to give anybody credit and I'm sure they don't think anything differently of me.

"A champion is a champion and that's all there is to it, but week to week we all feel like we're the best drivers out there and those other guys just got lucky and that's how it goes. And I think a little bit of that's healthy."

But right before that Edwards -- who has had a minor spat or two with Busch through their rising careers -- had done just that.

"Any personal issues that we've ever had aside, those guys really earned this championship," Edwards said. "They have run very, very well, so you've got to respect that."

Let's just hope that Busch himself does a good job of that; and here's betting that when the dust settles after Homestead, he'll do just fine.

"Remember, this is all new to him," Gibbs said of his first-time champion. "Kyle's passion is winning races, but to win a championship, it's not all about winning races. You've got to take what you're given sometimes, and he's done a lot better job of grasping that."

Edwards' teammate Greg Biffle, who won his first title in the Truck Series and followed it up shortly after in the Busch Series, remembers it well.

"It was really, really important," Biffle said. "I remember those days like it was today. It was Texas that I clinched the [Truck] title, and the [Busch] Series, I clinched it in Phoenix. It's memories that I carry with me. It's a lot of fun. Those championships are hard to come by, and you have to overcome a lot of obstacles to win them, and they mean a great deal to people."

At least they should.

Hamlin not a wreck

And according to J.D. Gibbs he's not going to go out of his way to create any, either. Gibbs explained, on Sunday morning at Phoenix, the emotion involved in his lead Sprint Cup driver's verbal threat to Brad Keselowski after the pair exchanged blows with their cars late in the Able Body Labor 200. Hamlin came out on the worse end of that.

Budding Rivalry

After Brad Keselowski spun Denny Hamlin at Phoenix, words were exchanged and meetings were held with NASCAR officials.

• Wreck in Phoenix
• Driver reactions
• Keselowski meets with France

"The reality is, and I think [Hamlin] knows that some things in life are really frustrating," Gibbs said. "Part of that was just venting, and he's not going to go and do anything. He was calm and he just said what he was feeling, but the reality of it is, none of that [retaliation] is gonna happen.

"With Brad, there appears to be some issues with us that just have to be addressed. I'm not the expert on how you go about doing that and I think it's not our job to do it. There still could be some issues down the line but at least now everybody knows what's expected out of them; so we'll move forward and I think we're fine."

Kyle Busch Victory Watch

If Shrub had managed to win at least one race at Phoenix I would've felt a lot better about this weekend at Homestead, but now he needs a weekend sweep to better the record he set a year ago, of 21 national series wins in a year: 8 Cup, 10 Nationwide and 3 Truck.

But here's the deal. I initially said I would give up until the math didn't add up and here's what it is. He's at 19 wins: 4 Cup, 8 Nationwide and 7 Truck, and given that his respective finishes were 19th with no laps led, second with the most laps led and fourth with the most laps led, it's still game on.

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.