NASCAR Atlanta Results ***SPOILER***

Kyle Busch scored his first Sprint Cup series win of the season at Atlanta Motor Speedway, giving Toyota their maiden victory in NASCAR's top series in the Kobalt Tools 500.

After a few near misses for him and Toyota this season, Busch was finally able to make his flamboyant style and superior speed count. In a day where cars were visibly lacking grip and sliding into and out of the corners, Busch was instrumental in allowing Toyota's first visit to Victory Lane.

The 22-year-old was again the class of the field but not necessarily because of a superior car. The No. 18 Camry, which led more than half the distance, was in a permanent drift around the Atlanta banking and despite a small brush with the wall halfway through, Busch never eased his pace.

The Joe Gibbs Racing driver drove everything out of his very loose car and grabbed the opportunity to take his first win of the year with both hands. For a moment it looked as though Carl Edwards was going to steal the win away from Busch, but after the No. 99 car started fuming, it was going to be hard to beat the Toyota driver.

"Now you just want to go out there and win every weekend because you know you can do it," said an excited Busch. "Whenever you can go to victory lane it means so much and you know, to keep my streak going with one (victory) a year, but one is not enough, we need to win more than that."

Busch, who had been winless since nearly a year ago, won the Truck series race on Friday night and had also been the driver to beat on Saturday in the Nationwide Series race, leading almost the whole race until the right front tyre blew up and sent him against the wall.

Despite the precedent and so many near misses in the past, he said he was confident on his machinery on the closing laps of the race. However, he might have caused some panic among his team when he ran probably too close to the rear of Dale Jarrett's lapped car on the last lap, making slight contact with it while trying to get by.

"I never heard anything crazy (in the closing laps) or anything like that," Busch added. "I was just trying to get those guys out of my way. It's just frustrating there going by those lapped cars because these cars are so aero dependent.

"We all thought that it wasn't going to be, but when you get up front, you take off and there behind those lapped cars you can ask them to get out of your way. You can't tell them to, but you can ask them.

"There was a couple there that we had a hard time with and finally we were able to get by them before Biffle got us."

Tony Stewart made Toyota's day even better as he got by Greg Biffle in the final laps of the race to finish second behind his new teammate.

Dale Earnhardt Jr, who also led the race before a brush with the wall, passed Biffle in the last lap to score a good third place that has moved him up in the point standings.

Pole-sitter Jeff Gordon had a quiet, though productive day in terms of points rounding up the top five, while reigning champion Jimmie Johnson had yet another tough race struggling with lack of traction and rear-end grip, but still managing a 13th place finish being the last car on the lead lap.

Edwards was on course to get back some of his and his team's honor before an engine-related issue caused him to be black flagged when he was leading the race with less than 40 laps remaining. He eventually had to retire from the event, being classified 42nd as one only two non-finishers.

"I don't know what happened, but the oil tank lid was on," Edwards joked referring to the cause for his penalty after his victory at Las Vegas. "It's real frustrating. To win three in a row in this series is real tough. To win three out of the first four, that would have been spectacular.

"But I think we showed today and we've showed the last couple of weeks that we've got a great team. Our whole team is working well together. I'm excited."

Sam Hornish Jr was the highest finishing rookie of the day in 25th but two laps down, while Dario Franchitti was 31st and crossed the finish line four laps behind the race winner after a couple of slight brushes with the wall.

He has lost the lead of the Raybestos rookie standings to Hornish.

"I cannot believe how loose the cars were all day," Franchitti said. "I think everybody was in the same boat. We were just hanging on. We hit the wall a couple of times just on exit with the thing being so loose and the rear being toed-out, stuck out so much, but we finished."

Despite Tony Stewart's claims against the Goodyear tyres and the visible lack of grip for most, the race amazingly didn't see any major crashes. In fact there were only eight caution flags, and only three of them due to incidents, which involved a single car. Elliot Sadler was the only car not finishing the race due to a crash.

Kyle Busch has extended his points lead and Greg Biffle has now moved up to second ahead of Kevin Harvick, while Ryan Newman has slid down to fourth.

Brian Vickers, who was an impressive ninth today, has been one of the biggest gainers among the top of the standings, moving up to ninth in the points.

Pos Driver Make Laps
1. Kyle Busch Toyota 325
2. Tony Stewart Toyota 325
3. Dale Earnhardt Jr Chevrolet 325
4. Greg Biffle Ford 325
5. Jeff Gordon Chevrolet 325
6. Clint Bowyer Chevrolet 325
7. Kevin Harvick Chevrolet 325
8. Matt Kenseth Ford 325
9. Brian Vickers Toyota 325
10. Jeff Burton Chevrolet 325
11. Kurt Busch Dodge 325
12. Bobby Labonte Dodge 325
13. Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet 325
14. Ryan Newman Dodge 324
15. Denny Hamlin Toyota 324
16. Juan Montoya Dodge 324
17. Casey Mears Chevrolet 324
18. Scott Riggs Chevrolet 324
19. Paul Menard Chevrolet 324
20. David Reutimann Toyota 323
21. Martin Truex Jr Chevrolet 323
22. Mark Martin Chevrolet 323
23. David Ragan Ford 323
24. Robby Gordon Dodge 323
25. Sam Hornish Jr Dodge 323
26. Kasey Kahne Dodge 322
27. Travis Kvapil Ford 322
28. Dale Jarrett Toyota 322
29. Mike Skinner Toyota 322
30. David Gilliland Ford 321
31. Dario Franchitti Dodge 321
32. Dave Blaney Toyota 321
33. Michael Waltrip Toyota 321
34. Reed Sorenson Dodge 321
35. JJ Yeley Toyota 320
36. Regan Smith Chevrolet 320
37. Joe Nemechek Chevrolet 320
38. Patrick Carpentier Dodge 320
39. Jeremy Mayfield Chevrolet 318
40. Jamie McMurray Ford 317
41. Kyle Petty Dodge 313
42. Carl Edwards Ford 274
43. Elliott Sadler Dodge 257

 

I missed the race, chose being with two very beautiful women at a polo match over watching the race. I know, what kind of race fan am I. Punish me.

Maybe, not the stupid kind. I know my priorities.

So was this a typical close Atlanta finish?

Colin, what did you mean by Dale Jr's comments, who was he dissing?

And I find it interesting, that the new kid at Hendrick, the one that everyone said is living on his father's reputation, is doing better than his other teammates, both former NASCAR champions. Maybe the kid really has what it takes. I think so.