For the first time since 1954 a foreign car manufacturer has won in the NASCAR Sprint Cup series as Kyle Busch claims the win at Atlanta for Toyota, placing an exclamation mark on Toyota's NASCAR experiment.

Gibbs Racing teammate Tony Stewart was second, followed by Dale Earnhardt, Jr, Greg Biffle and Jeff Gordon.

Kyle Busch gives Toyota their first Sprint Cup win. Photo: Toyota

His nickname is "Rowdy." They call him that because he runs his Joe Gibbs Toyota wide open.... all the time.

"Go or Blow!" That's Kyle.

And he did just that Sunday at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Start to finish, the young driver from Las Vegas kept his foot in the gas to win the Kobalt Tools 500. He became the first driver to win a NASCAR Craftsman Truck and a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race in the same weekend.

He turned back a number of challengers during the sunny afternoon, including runner-up and teammate Tony Stewart in another Toyota.

It was a grueling Sunday for NASCAR's best drivers, who fought the steering wheel all day trying to get a handle on the slippery Atlanta surface.

Busch's win was the first for one of the really nice guys in the sport, crew chief Steve Addington, who worked his way through the NASCAR ranks to his current position. Addington worked in several of the sport's development tours en route to matching up with one of the sport's youngest stars. In fact, Busch became the youngest winner ever for this event.

Trailing the two Gibbs drivers was popular Dale Earnhardt, Jr., who said it was the hardest he has ever driven and added, "but that's the way it should be."

Kyle Busch "Snickers" the field at Atlanta. Photo: Toyota

Greg Biffle was fourth and two-time champion Jeff Gordon was fifth.

Rounding out the top 10 were Clint Bowyer, Kevin Harvick, Matt Kenseth, Brian Vickers and Jeff Burton.

The ninth-place finish for Vickers came on the heels of not qualifying for last week's race in Las Vegas. His Red Bull Toyota fought back from being a lap down to crack the top 10.

It was a miserable day for Elliott Sadler, who caused three caution flags in a row when his car lost grip and spun.

Carl Edwards looked to make it three Sprint Cup wins in a row and appeared to be in good shape to do so, taking the lead on lap 168, but with just 50 laps to go blue smoke billowed out from Edwards’ Ford, ending his day.

“You can’t ever say what was going to happen” said Edwards after climbing from his car, “but I think we were going to win that race, I was just having a blast”.

Edward's day goes up in smoke. Photo: CIA Stock Photo

Earnhardt took the lead on the first lap and left Gordon and the rest of the field in the dust. His National Guard Chevrolet slid smoothly through the corners, and his lap times were more than half-a-second quicker than his rivals.

Busch moved from the sixth starting spot to second place in just a few laps but even Busch, who likes to run wide open every lap, couldn't keep up with Earnhardt's torrid pace.

J.J. Yeley suffered the first penalty of the cold, sunny afternoon when he entered pit road too fast for an unscheduled stop.

A caution for debris on the 38th lap slowed the field but Earnhardt had lapped half the field at that point.

On the restart, Earnhardt picked up where he left off.... at the front of the pack. Young Busch was next in line, but dropped back a considerable distance.

Edwards was next, trailed by Harvick, Gordon, Denny Hamlin, Jeff Burton, Clint Bowyer, Daytona 500 winner Ryan Newman, Martin Truex, Jr. and defending NASCAR Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson, who had his worst day in recent memory at Las Vegas last Sunday when he was never a contender.

Next Up - Bristol Motor Speedway

Juan Pablo Montoya, who finished fifth here in Atlanta last March, had moved from 19th to 11th by the 60th lap.

Busch took the lead on the 60th lap when Earnhardt complained about losing the handle on his machine. The field spread out all around the 1.5-mile tri-oval at this point in the race.

While Busch sped away to a big lead, Earnhardt dropped to third when Edwards sailed past him. Edwards, however, couldn't hold the position. Both Earnhardt and Harvick passed him within a few laps.

Another caution for debris slowed the action at 84 laps and all the leaders pitted again.

Busch took over again when racing resumed and Hamlin took over the second spot behind him. Earnhardt was third, Kevin Harvick fourth and Gordon fifth.

Earnhardt moved around Hamlin for second a few laps later. On lap 116, Kasey Kahne lost grip on his Dodge in turn four, bringing out the third caution flag of the day.

It was Busch and Earnhardt again with Harvick, Bowyer and Gordon behind them. Stewart, who started 32nd, had worked his way up to sixth position.

On lap 129, Harvick moved past Earnhardt for second place. Earnhardt dropped to fourth behind Bowyer.
   
Shortly after the halfway point, when the field made its first green-flag pit stops, Bowyer came out leading with Busch second and Harvick third. Rounding out the top 15 were Hamlin, Edwards, Gordon, Earnhardt, Stewart, Jeff Burton, Ryan Newman, Kenseth, Montoya, Bobby Labonte, Johnson and Biffle.

The last time a foreign manufacturer won in the NASCAR Sprint Cup series was 1954 when Al Keller won for Jaguar at a race in Linden, NJ.  Keller's only other NASCAR win also came that year, but while driving a Hudson at Ogelthorpe Speedway at Savannah, GA.

Results...

FIN	ST	CAR	DRIVER	MAKE	SPONSOR	PTS/BNS	LAPS	STATUS
1	6	18	Kyle Busch	Toyota	Snickers	195/10	325	Running
2	32	20	Tony Stewart	Toyota	Home Depot "10 Years Strong"	170/0	325	Running
3	2	88	Dale Earnhardt Jr.	Chevrolet	AMP Energy / National Guard	170/5	325	Running
4	13	16	Greg Biffle	Ford	Jackson Hewitt	165/5	325	Running
5	1	24	Jeff Gordon	Chevrolet	DuPont	160/5	325	Running
6	7	07	Clint Bowyer	Chevrolet	DIRECTV	155/5	325	Running
7	8	29	Kevin Harvick	Chevrolet	Shell / Pennzoil	146/0	325	Running
8	38	17	Matt Kenseth	Ford	DEWALT	142/0	325	Running
9	35	83	Brian Vickers	Toyota	Red Bull	143/5	325	Running
10	15	31	Jeff Burton	Chevrolet	AT&T Mobility	134/0	325	Running
11	29	2	Kurt Busch	Dodge	Miller Lite	130/0	325	Running
12	5	43	Bobby Labonte	Dodge	Cheerios / Betty Crocker	132/5	325	Running
13	11	48	Jimmie Johnson	Chevrolet	Lowe's / Kobalt Tools	124/0	325	Running
14	12	12	Ryan Newman	Dodge	ALLTEL	121/0	324	Running
15	22	11	Denny Hamlin	Toyota	FedEx Ground	118/0	324	Running
16	19	42	Juan Montoya	Dodge	Wrigley's Big Red	115/0	324	Running
17	39	5	Casey Mears	Chevrolet	Kellogg's / CARQUEST	112/0	324	Running
18	28	66	Scott Riggs	Chevrolet	State Water Heaters	109/0	324	Running
19	20	15	Paul Menard	Chevrolet	Energizer / Menards	106/0	324	Running
20	30	00	David Reutimann	Toyota	Aaron's Dream Machine	103/0	323	Running
21	3	1	Martin Truex Jr.	Chevrolet	Bass Pro Shops / Tracker	100/0	323	Running
22	10	8	Mark Martin	Chevrolet	U.S. Army	97/0	323	Running
23	14	6	David Ragan	Ford	AAA	94/0	323	Running
24	26	7	Robby Gordon	Dodge	Valvoline / Jim Beam	91/0	323	Running
25	33	77	Sam Hornish Jr. *	Dodge	Penske Truck Rental	88/0	323	Running
26	9	9	Kasey Kahne	Dodge	Budweiser	90/5	322	Running
27	42	28	Travis Kvapil	Ford	Zaxby's	82/0	322	Running
28	43	44	Dale Jarrett	Toyota	UPS	79/0	322	Running
29	34	84	Mike Skinner	Toyota	Red Bull	76/0	322	Running
30	31	38	David Gilliland	Ford	FreeCreditReport.com	73/0	321	Running
31	23	40	Dario Franchitti *	Dodge	Fastenal	70/0	321	Running
32	16	22	Dave Blaney	Toyota	Caterpillar	67/0	321	Running
33	27	55	Michael Waltrip	Toyota	NAPA AUTO PARTS	64/0	321	Running
34	25	41	Reed Sorenson	Dodge	Target	61/0	321	Running
35	37	96	J.J. Yeley	Toyota	DLP HDTV	58/0	320	Running
36	41	01	Regan Smith *	Chevrolet	DEI / Principal Financial Group	55/0	320	Running
37	17	78	Joe Nemechek	Chevrolet	Furniture Row Racing	52/0	320	Running
38	21	10	Patrick Carpentier *	Dodge	Cintas	49/0	320	Running
39	36	70	Jeremy Mayfield	Chevrolet	Haas Automation	46/0	318	Running
40	24	26	Jamie McMurray	Ford	IRWIN Industrial Tools	43/0	317	Running
41	40	45	Kyle Petty	Dodge	Paralyzed Veterans of America	40/0	313	Running
42	4	99	Carl Edwards	Ford	Aflac	42/5	274	Out of Race
43	18	19	Elliott Sadler	Dodge	Best Buy / Garmin	34/0	257	Out of Race