Busch Scores Toyota’s First Sprint Cup Victory In Manufacturer’s 40th Start

HAMPTON, Ga. — The so-called All American sport of NASCAR Sprint Cup racing now has a Japanese nameplate in victory lane after Kyle Busch drove a Toyota Camry to victory in Sunday’s Kobalt Tools 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
It’s the first time since 1954 that a car whose heritage comes from outside of the United States has won in NASCAR’s top division. That’s when Al Keller drove a Jaguar to victory at Linden, N.J.
Busch’s Toyota defeated Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Tony Stewart by 2.066 seconds with Dale Earnhardt, Jr.’s Chevrolet third, followed by Roush Fenway driver Greg Biffle’s Ford and Jeff Gordon’s Chevrolet.
“It’s pretty special, but it wasn’t all that important to me,” Busch said of giving Toyota its first win. “To me, I’m fortunate to have Toyota on our side, and for me to go out there and win, it doesn’t matter what I’m driving.
“I’d drive a milk crate, which is pretty much what this thing drives like. For me to win the first race for Toyota was fun. It took them their fourth race in their second year. I’m sure they wanted it sooner, but I’m glad I was able to do it for them.”
In true Busch style, he even nudged fellow Toyota driver Dale Jarrett out of the way on the final lap.
“He was slowing me down, so finally I drove up in there underneath, made him get loose and out of the way,” Busch said. “I was either going to move him out of the way or he was going to get out of the way.”
Busch also won Friday night’s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Atlanta and was running away with Saturday’s Nationwide race before a right-front tire blew out while he was leading late in the race.
“Overall, a great day for Joe Gibbs Racing,” Busch said. “I just drove the thing to the best of my ability. I’m flattered and fortunate enough to have the abilities that I do and for everybody to talk about it the way they do. All I can do is go out there and drive my best, and do what I’m paid to do and that’s win races and to contend for championships week in and week out and drive the way I drive.”
Stewart was surprised with his second-place finish and took some major verbal shots at the Goodyear tires, which has an exclusive contract to serve as the tire supplier to the Sprint Cup Series that runs through 2012.
“That’s the most pathetic racing tire I’ve ever been on in my racing career,” Stewart said. “They exited out of Formula One, they exited out of the IRL, they exited out of CART, they excited out of the World of Outlaws, and there is a reason for that: because Goodyear can’t build a tire that is worth a crap. If I were Goodyear, I’d be really embarrassed about this weekend and what they brought us here.
“How we got to second, I don’t know. It was ridiculous to have to race on a tire like this today. Not at this form of racing. If they can’t do any better than that, they ought to pull out of this sport and save us a bunch of headaches, because I guarantee you Hoosier or Firestone could come in and do a lot better job than this today. I wouldn’t bolt them on a passenger car.”
Busch had one of the dominant cars in the race, but waited until the end to exert his dominance to close out the victory.
Carl Edwards took the lead when he passed Busch on lap 239 using the high-line of the race track.
Elliott Sadler spun out for the third time in a row when he lost control of his Dodge on the backstretch on lap 262, which erased Edwards’s large lead and sent the field back to pit road for four fresh tires.
Edwards drove away from the field before his tires started to smoke and that allowed Busch to pull ahead briefly before Edwards pulled away once again.
Edwards’s Ford continued to smoke, leading to concern from the driver. Edwards was black-flagged by NASCAR officials with the car smoking heavily and sent into the pits to inspect the cause of the problem with 50 laps to go.
That gave Busch the lead.
A yellow flag set up another pit stop with 41 laps to go. Earnhardt wanted his crew to tighten up the car so it would be closer to the setup he had at the beginning of the race, when he enjoyed two long periods in front of the field.
When the green flag waved with 37 to go, Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Busch and Stewart were first and second followed by Biffle’s Ford and Earnhardt’s Chevrolet. Busch pulled ahead from Stewart.
Busch’s victory extended his lead in the Sprint Cup points. He now leads Greg Biffle by 73 points and Kevin Harvick by 91 after four races.
“It was a battle out there, that’s for sure, because these cars are pretty tough to drive,” Busch said. “We kept working on it, kept making it better. We were all over the board there for a little bit, but we babied it around the race track all day today. I rode around the bottom.”