Kyle Busch’s win at Sunday’s Kobalt Tools 500 on the wickedly fast 24-degree banks of the 1.54-mile Quad Oval that is Atlanta Motor Speedway was a day of firsts. It was Kyle Busch’s fist victory for new team boss Joe Gibbs; it was the first victory for Busch’s crew chief, Steve Addington; and perhaps the biggest reason for celebration of all was that it was Toyota’s first victory in 40 attempts in the deathly competitive NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. Having only scored two top five finishes in the motor giant’s debut in Cup racing in 2007 — and this with seven Toyota-backed team working in some sort of unison — the Toyota victory marked the first time a foreign manufacturer had won a major NASCAR race since Al Keller did the deed in a Jaguar at Linden Airport, New Jersey on June 13, 1954.

"This is a date that will forever go down in the history of Toyota Motorsports. And we look at it, certainly, as one of many to come," Jim Aust, president and CEO of Toyota Racing Development, told NASCAR.com after the race. "It's obviously a historic day for Toyota to get the first Sprint Cup win of our short career. Certainly, we were looking at that possibility last year. But it was a learning year.”

Busch would ultimately lead 173 of the 325 laps at Atlanta, but as anyone close to the sport knows, nothing is ever sure in racing and as he closed in on victory, everyone and anyone even remotely affiliated with Toyota and Gibbs Racing, held their breath and hoped for the best. Kyle Busch’s march towards victory in Atlanta truly began on lap number 286 when Busch won the caution flag initiated race off of pit road to assume the lead. On lap 300, with 25 laps to go, Busch maintained a healthy three-second lead and everyne began to pace nervously. As the laps clicked off, Busch kept is wits and his cool, and when the white flag was unfurled and waved on lap 324, he deftly motored around the 1.54-mile asphalt salad bowl of speed, and upon flashing beneath the checkered flag claimed victory.

“This is amazing,” the 22 year-old from Las Vegas declared in victory lane. “The 18 has always been the car to beat here at Atlanta for many, many years when this place was redone and with Bobby Labonte. This means so much to come back here and do this.”

The win was the fifth of Busch’s NASCAR Sprint Cup career and his first since the Food City 500 at Bristol, Tennessee on March 25, 2007 (interestingly, in another first, it was premier Car of Tomorrow race). Making things all the better for Toyota on Sunday was the fact that Tony Stewart passed Greg Biffle with two laps to go to complete a Joe Gibbs Racing one-two punch combination. Dale Earnhardt Jr., who also passed Biffle at the bitter end, laced third. Biffle ended up fourth, just ahead of Jeff Gordon. Putting the finishing touch on Toyota’s epic afternoon in Atlanta was Brain Vickers who drove his Red Bull Toyota to a fine ninth place finish.

Eric Johnson