updated 12:00 a.m. ET March 10, 2008

HAMPTON, Ga. - It was like the good old days for Joe Gibbs Racing on Sunday at Atlanta Motor Speedway when newcomer Kyle Busch put the No. 18 in the Winner’s Circle.

But there was a new twist — the first NASCAR Sprint Cup victory for Toyota. And Busch and teammate Tony Stewart also gave the Japanese automaker its first 1-2 finish.

It was the first win in 40 Cup starts for Toyota and it confirmed that the company’s signing of the powerhouse Gibbs team over the winter will make its Camrys, which struggled in their 2007 debut, competitive with the other top teams.

“First for Kyle, first for (sponsor) Mars and then, of course, first for Toyota. ... I think we were all apprehensive,” said team owner Gibbs, who returned to racing full-time after retiring late last year as coach of the Washington Redskins. “We started the year, there was a huge amount of change, everything we had to go through. So we really appreciate the way everybody worked and hunkered up.

“The No. 18 car, they’ve been through some, you know, real tough hard couple of years. I really appreciate those guys hanging tough, too.”

The win put the No. 18 back on top at Atlanta, where former Gibbs driver Bobby Labonte won six races in that car and was a perennial contender.

The significance was not lost on Busch.

“The 18! The 18! The 18 is back at Atlanta,” Busch screamed on the radio after crossing the finish line ahead of Stewart. “Congratulations, (crew chief Steve) Addington, it’s your first one.”

Former crew chief Jimmy Makar, the first person hired by Gibbs when he decided to go NASCAR racing, radioed the winner, “Kyle Busch, this is Jimmy. Thank you for bringing the 18 back.”

Busch took the lead for good with 50 laps to go when Carl Edwards, trying for a third straight victory, went out with a broken transmission.

The victory was the first in NASCAR by a foreign manufacturer since Al Keller drove a Jaguar to a road course win in Linden, N.J., in June 1954.

“Kyle has been very close since the beginning of the year,” said Jim Aust, president of Toyota Racing Development. “Starting with the Daytona 500 and what could have been. To have Kyle come in and take this one and Tony finish second, wow! The feeling can’t get any better than that. Finishing one-two for our first Cup win — I don’t know how you improve on that.”

It was the fifth Cup victory for Busch and the first since last March 25 at Bristol for the driver who will turn 23 on May 2. He became the youngest winner on Atlanta’s 1.54-mile oval since Jeff Gordon won in 1995 at 23 years, 6 months.

“It means a lot of go out and win any race any time, but especially here in Atlanta,” Busch said. “This place has been such a struggle for me; I haven’t had a top 10 finish here. I remember the years watching Bobby Labonte race around this place kicking everybody’s butt. It sort of reminded me a little bit about it today, being able to race like that, run like that, bring that 18 car back up front and run here the way it used to and the way it should.”

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