ROCKINGHAM, N.C. -- Now this is what racing is all about, the excitement of a nail-biting championship battle on its way to the ultimate four-wheel challenge: a one-race shootout for all the marbles.

No, Matt Kenseth hasn't abdicated his Winston Cup lead. If everything goes well -- and that means finishing seventh or better in Sunday's Pop Secret Popcorn 400 at North Carolina Speedway -- Kenseth will clinch the Cup title. If not, all he must do is manage 30th or better in these last two races and the spoils are his.

Rather, it's the undercard Busch Series that has quietly and steadily been stealing away some of the attention from what has been a rather mundane Cup championship battle, given Kenseth's stranglehold on the rest of the pack.

The reason the Busch Series is getting so much focus is simple: With one race to go, Winston Cup racing's minor league is locked in the tightest and most exciting battle in its history.

Heading into the Ford 300 season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Nov. 15, the Busch crown remains up for grabs, with any of six drivers still in contention to take home the title trophy and big payday that comes with it.

"It does (help the series' popularity), both ours and the trucks," said Bobby Hamilton Jr., who finished third in Saturday's Target House 200 Busch event. "When the media mentions Matt's domination in the Cup Series, they tend to follow with how close our race is. I guarantee you we have more viewers on TV than we did at the beginning of the year."

While probable Winston Cup Rookie of the Year recipient Jamie McMurray won Saturday's Busch race at NCS, the standings underwent yet another major shakeup, the 12th time in the last 19 weeks where there has been a change atop the leader board.

Brian Vickers, who won his first career Busch pole on Friday, finished sixth to vault from third-place to first in the standings. Even though he finished 10th, David Green also climbed two positions, moving from fourth to second.

Ron Hornaday Jr., who finished 17th, dropped from second to third, Jason Keller (finished 13th) climbed from fifth to fourth, and Hamilton Jr. turned what had been considered a five-way race for the title into a six-way race.

As happy as he was to have such a strong end result, the last thing Hamilton wanted to discuss was the points battle.

"I have no idea and don't care to talk about it," he said, sounding as if he didn't want to jinx his suddenly revived championship chances. "We're just trying to win all the races. It's as simple as that. We tried to win today. We're going to Homestead and forget about where we are in the points, try to lead every lap, most laps and win the race. Everything we need to win races right now, we have."

Last week's points leader, Scott Riggs, suffered the worst fate of the half-dozen drivers still in contention, being involved in a costly wreck 30 laps from the end that hurt him plenty, dropping like a rock to fifth-place in the standings.

"I hate it," Riggs said dejectedly. "We didn't have that good of a car and we kept working on it the whole time, made great pit stops and kept making huge gains every time we came into the pits. … I think something broke on the brakes or something. The car couldn't get slowed even after I knew it was going into the wall. I couldn't get it slowed down or anything."

As for losing his series lead, Riggs said, "We're in a different position now than we have been lately. We're chasing four other guys now and we need to go in and do the best job we can. It's pretty ridiculous for us to be where we were and then to be where we are now. It's tough for us."

So, as it stands heading to the season finale next Saturday, Vickers, who will jump full-time to Nextel Cup next season, holds a razor-thin 22-point lead over Green. Hornaday is 39 points behind, followed by Keller (70 points), Riggs (85) and Hamilton (89).

Saturday was McMurray's third consecutive Busch triumph at Rockingham, dating back to last fall's race, followed by the second race of this season in February. His Dodge led 126 laps of the 197-lap event, including the final 76 as the frontrunner, with a winning margin of 1.799 seconds over Martin Truax.

It was Truax's best Busch career finish driving the Dale Earnhardt Jr.-owned Chance Two/Ralph Earnhardt Tribute Chevrolet.

"It was real neat to have the Ralph Earnhardt (father of the late Dale and grandfather of Dale Earnhardt Jr. and step-brother Kerry Earnhardt) car and to also run well," Truax said. "That last real long green flag run (106 laps, from lap 61 to lap 167), we were definitely the fastest car. We just ran out of time, I guess."

With all the talk about how inequitable the current points system is in Winston Cup, the same can't be said about the Busch series. When Hamilton was asked to talk about a way to distinguish between Winston Cup regulars who compete on occasion in the series and Busch Series regulars, he didn't mince words.

"Give them all the points and give us all the money," Hamilton deadpanned. "If we're the best Busch guy, it means we have the most points. I've thought how they should change (the current points structure) or how I could make it better myself, but that's been going on and on for years. You just can't throw a monkey wrench in there. NASCAR's hands are kind of tied right now. We just have to take what we get."

Jerry Bonkowski covers NASCAR for ESPN.com. He can be reached at Motorsportwriter@MSN.com.