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.

“We were all apprehensive at the start of the year,” said team owner Joe Gibbs, who returned to racing full-time after retiring late last year as coach of the Washington Redskins. “There was a huge amount of work we had to go through.”

The victory 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, winning for the first time since last March 25 at Bristol, 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 first victory for the Japanese automaker in NASCAR’s top series came in its 40th race and is the first NASCAR victory by a foreign manufacturer since Al Keller drove a Jaguar to a road course win in Linden, N.J., in June 1954.