With his No. 2 Penske Dodge on four fresh tires, Busch rocketed past race leader Carl Edwards moments after a restart for a green-white-checkered finish that sent the race five laps beyond its posted distance of 325 laps.
Series points leader Jeff Gordon also passed Edwards on Lap 329 and finished second, trailing Busch to the finish line by .332 seconds. Gordon extended his lead in the standings to 43 points over Clint Bowyer, who ran sixth.
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This is the second year in a row the Busch brothers have won back-to-back races. Kyle won June 22 at Infineon and Kurt won the next week at New Hampshire (and then Kyle kept the Busch family in Victory Lane with wins in the next two races, at Daytona and Chicago).
“This car was unbelievable,” Busch said. “Good thing come to those that wait. We waited over a year and a half with the (Car of Tomorrow) to find a good package and we’ve had that to start 2009.
“That’s neat,” Busch said of the back-to-back wins with Kyle, who also won the spring race in Atlanta in 2008. “I’ve got to hold my end of the bargain, because Kyle’s on the gas right now. I’ve got to thank guys like Carl for racing me clean at the end, and Jeff Gordon was strong all day.
“When you beat those two kinds of guys here at Atlanta—especially on a day when it reminded me of Darlington. ... This place will just chew you up and spit you out, and we had the handle.”
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Edwards held on to third and gained five positions to fourth in points, 87 behind Gordon. Kevin Harvick and Brian Vickers ran fourth and fifth, respectively, despite falling off the lead lap when the third caution of the race trapped them during a cycle of green-flag pit stops.
FIN ST CAR DRIVER
1 2 2 Kurt Busch
2 16 24 Jeff Gordon
3 29 99 Carl Edwards
4 10 29 Kevin Harvick
5 17 83 Brian Vickers
6 21 33 Clint Bowyer
7 13 9 Kasey Kahne
8 11 14 Tony Stewart
9 7 48 Jimmie Johnson
10 23 1 Martin Truex Jr.
11 20 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr.
12 30 17 Matt Kenseth
13 6 11 Denny Hamlin
14 15 31 Jeff Burton
15 3 26 Jamie McMurray
16 25 7 Casey Mears
17 38 44 A.J. Allmendinger
18 9 18 Kyle Busch
19 39 6 David Ragan
20 14 19 Elliott Sadler
21 37 8 Aric Almirola
22 12 39 Ryan Newman
23 28 12 David Stremme
24 31 171 David Gilliland
25 24 55 Michael Waltrip
26 19 7 Robby Gordon
27 4 42 Juan Montoya
28 33 98 Paul Menard
29 41 34 John Andretti
30 42 20 Joey Logano *
31 1 5 Mark Martin
32 18 0 David Reutimann
33 32 43 Reed Sorenson
34 5 16 Greg Biffle
35 26 82 Scott Speed *
36 35 21 Bill Elliott
37 36 77 Sam Hornish Jr.
38 34 47 Marcos Ambrose
39 8 187 Joe Nemechek
40 40 96 Bobby Labonte
41 27 66 Dave Blaney
42 22 28 Travis Kvapil
43 43 9 Mike Bliss
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