Kurt Busch and Pat Tryson had every reason to coast through the season's final 10 races in a long farewell before the crew chief bolts to a new team next year.

Only they promised not to go through the motions, and Busch's win at Texas Motor Speedway showed they kept their word. The victory Sunday moved Busch to fourth in the standings and gave him a solid shot at celebrating a top-five finish when NASCAR's season-ending awards ceremony makes its debut in Busch's hometown of Las Vegas.

Not too shabby considering Tryson is only allowed inside Penske Racing once a week, for the Tuesday team meeting. He's been banned from the shop the rest of the time as Penske officials prepare for 2010 without him.

Tryson decided in late August to move to Michael Waltrip Racing next season to crew chief Martin Truex Jr., news that broke just a week before the start of the championship race. Busch wasn't pleased with the timing, or Tryson's decision, and everyone assumed the knee-jerk reaction would cost Busch any shot at the title.

Instead, they raced hard and overcame any limitations placed on Tryson's preparation and planning. They also proved everyone wrong who predicted that Tryson's lame duck status would keep Busch out of Victory Lane.

"Pat, great job for you," team owner Roger Penske told Tryson after Sunday's race.

"Appreciate the commitment you made in these last races. I want to say that publicly. I know you're a first-class guy. What a great win for you and for the team."

Tryson simply thanked Penske for the kind words and the subject was dropped.

It's the same way Tryson has deflected talk about his departure since it became public knowledge. He's chosen not to harp on it and instead make sure Busch had the very best race car possible each week of the Chase.

That was evident early when Busch opened the Chase with consecutive top-10 finishes. There was an 11th at Kansas that hurt him in the standings, but he came back for another pair of top-10s. His only real off day was at Martinsville, where he's struggled the last three years, and finished 17th.

His Chase has been good enough to make Busch look back at Talladega two weeks ago with immense regret: He had a top-10 finish locked up on the final lap, only to be wrecked by new teammate Brad Keselowski and finish 30th. Continued...