Kyle Busch wins first ever CoT race

Busch achieved further milestones with his win, taking victory number 200 for Hendrick Motorsports in NASCAR and the 600th win for Chevrolet in the Nextel Cup on the debut of the Impala SS.

The race ended dramatically with a two-lap sprint to the chequered flag, after a caution came out with four laps to go for a spinning David Ragan on the front straight.

Burton overtook Jeff Gordon on the outside on the final restart and then chased Busch - accelerating on his inside out of the last corner. Busch however was able to cross the start-finish line ahead by half a car length to take his first Cup win at Bristol.

"It's definitely a great feeling to be able to get here to victory lane, especially in the first 'Car of Today' or 'Car of Tomorrow' race, however you want to call it," Busch said after taking victory in front of an estimated sell-out crowd of 160,000 fans at the half-mile oval.

"Tony Stewart had a great car today and he probably could have won the race, Denny Hamlin as well too. Jeff Gordon and Jeff Burton there at the end really gave me a lot of room and I really want to give them my appreciation and thanks for letting me race. They gave it to me clean, so that's cool.

"I'm glad we could come out of here with a victory, but I still can't stand to drive these things. They're terrible," Busch added.

Many other drivers also struggled to get their cars to handle properly as teams were getting their first experience of the Car of Tomorrow in race conditions.

A good example was pole-sitter Jeff Gordon, who struggled first with a very loose car, which then turned into a very tight one after being adjusted during his early pit stops.

Gordon got his car sorted in the second half of the race and was able to move up the field and battle for victory in the end, eventually finishing third to claim the points lead.

"Oh my goodness! What a fight for us this was and a great fight. We had our troubles," said Gordon. "We started from pole but went backwards pretty fast. We were fortunate not to go a lap down a couple of times and right at the end we had a really good race car.

"What an incredible day. What a roll Hendrick Motorsports is on. I'm looking forward to the whole year."

But despite two Hendrick drivers finishing in the top three, it was Joe Gibbs Racing who dominated most of the race as Kyle Busch admitted. Between Stewart and Hamlin, they led 434 of the 500 laps, leaving most teams worried about their potential form in future COT races.

Stewart was arguably the driver to beat all afternoon, leading 257 of the first 300 laps until his car experienced fuel pressure problems. He pitted for repairs and fell 23 laps down, losing the chance to get his first victory of the season.

Meanwhile Hamlin, who led 177 laps and took over as Stewart hit trouble, struggled with engine problems in the last ten laps and could only managed to finish 14th.

Reigning champion Jimmie Johnson, who had won the last two races, finished 16th after having to pit with 15 laps to go due to a shredded tyre. He was being lapped when he hit trouble but did not loose much ground as the caution came out immediately.

Kevin Harvick and Greg Biffle rounded up the top five, while Brian Vickers was the best-placed Toyota in 15th. He enjoyed a good race by Bristol standards, staying out trouble to finish as the last car on the lead lap.

Juan Pablo Montoya had a bumpy ride in his first Cup start at Bristol. He got a lap down early on and then spun after being tapped from behind on lap 138. He struggled to restart his car quickly and fell three laps down while trying to do so.

"We didn't have a really fast car but we had a decent car," Montoya said. "We were running the bottom and one of the guys came down on me and spun me completely.

"I lost like two laps trying just to get it started and then we had a vibration in one of the tires but no, we're good. We got the car home and scored some more points and just go to the next one."

A.J Allmendinger, who was making his Nextel Cup debut had a tough afternoon, crashing on lap 151. He went behind the wall for repairs and returned to the track to finish his first Cup race in 40th.

Jeremy Mayfield, who was also doing his first race of the season, had an incident on lap 227 which forced him to go to behind the wall as well. Like Allmendinger however, he rejoined the race later to finish 34th.

Mark Martin's replacement in the No. 01 U.S. Army Chevrolet, had a difficult afternoon, too. During the second caution he picked-up a penalty when his car was serviced out of his pit-box, dropping a lap down.

He eventually finished 25th while Martin slid down to seventh in the points standings after missing the race. He is also expected to miss the Martinsville event next week.

Results:

Pos  Driver              Make       Laps
 1.  Kyle Busch          Chevrolet  504
 2.  Jeff Burton         Chevrolet  504
 3.  Jeff Gordon         Chevrolet  504
 4.  Kevin Harvick       Chevrolet  504
 5.  Greg Biffle         Ford       504
 6.  Jeff Green          Chevrolet  504
 7.  Dale Earnhardt Jr.  Chevrolet  504
 8.  Clint Bowyer        Chevrolet  504
 9.  Jamie McMurray      Ford       504
10.  Casey Mears         Chevrolet  504
11.  Matt Kenseth        Ford       504
12.  Carl Edwards        Ford       504
13.  David Stremme       Dodge      504
14.  Denny Hamlin        Chevrolet  504
15.  Brian Vickers       Toyota     504
16.  Jimmie Johnson      Chevrolet  503
17.  Mike Bliss          Dodge      503
18.  Ward Burton         Chevrolet  502
19.  Kasey Kahne         Dodge      501
20.  Kyle Petty          Dodge      501
21.  Kenny Wallace       Chevrolet  501
22.  Bobby Labonte       Dodge      501
23.  Dave Blaney         Toyota     501
24.  Tony Raines         Chevrolet  501
25.  Regan Smith         Chevrolet  501
26.  David Ragan         Ford       501
27.  Elliott Sadler      Dodge      500
28.  Ken Schrader        Ford       500
29.  Kurt Busch          Dodge      499
30.  Sterling Marlin     Chevrolet  499
31.  Scott Riggs         Dodge      498
32.  Juan Montoya        Dodge      497
33.  Robby Gordon        Ford       493
34.  Jeremy Mayfield     Toyota     486
35.  Tony Stewart        Chevrolet  479
36.  J.J. Yeley          Chevrolet  475
37.  Martin Truex Jr.    Chevrolet  475
38.  Ricky Rudd          Ford       454
39.  Ryan Newman         Dodge      450
40.  A.J. Allmendinger   Toyota     413
41.  David Gilliland     Ford        49
42.  Dale Jarrett        Toyota      43
43.  Reed Sorenson       Dodge       22