AJ Allmendinger went to Victory Lane for the first time in his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series career after a thrilling race at Watkins Glen International.
Allmendinger managed to hold off the Tazmanian Devil, Marcos Ambrose, in the #9 car in a clean and well fought battle on the final restart with just two laps to go.
There were accusations from the #9 team that Allmendinger in the #47 had jumped the final restart, but no one could take away the joy and relief from Allmendinger and that whole team.
He drives for JTG Daugherty Racing, the team that everyone nicknames 'The little team that could' and they defiantly could today at The Glen as Allmendinger booked his place in this years all new Chase in five races time.
As he crossed the line to take the victory he drove down into turn one and began doing burnouts as soon as he he could, which just showed how overjoyed he was to get the trophy today.
In Victory Lane he told ESPN: "I can't believe we won a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race. I love these guys (on the #47 team) and I just wanted it so bad for them and this team, but if was determined to not give Marcos (Ambrose) this win."
"I managed to hold him off in that restart, we both raced fair on that start and he didn't try and wreck me he just moved me out of the way which I would have done to him, but most importantly we won a Sprint Cup Series race baby!"
Allmendinger was even congratulated in Victory Lane by team owners Roger Penske of Team Pensek and Rick Hendrick of Hendrick Motorsports and was joined by his family for the celebrations.
Runner-up Ambrose was also happy for the #47 team and Allemdinger when he was interviewed by ESPN: "Congratulations to Aj (Allmendinger) because he really drove well as I was giving it everything to rattle his cage to try and grab that victory from him."
The race was longer than had been originally scheduled as two thirds through the race there was a big accident involving Ryan Newman in the #31 and Michael McDowell in the #95 out of the Carousel turn, but both drivers were thankfully unhurt.
Before the race began their was a driver change as Nationwide Series driver Regan Smith subbed in place of Tony Stewart who is the regular driver of the #14 car as Stewart was in no fit state to drive.
When the race got going pole sitter Jeff Gordon in the #24 car led the first lap from Ambrose as all 43 drivers were able to get around without incident.
There were early problems for the #4 team of Kevin Harvick as he had one of the most bizarre problems inside the race car when he told his team he had two of the ballast bags stuck under his pedals, so he had to come to pit road to get them removed.
Lap 10 saw the first car go to the garage area in the form of Paul Menard in the #27 with 'stoppage' issues the team reported as Gordon and Ambrose had a five second lead over 3rd placed Jimmie Johnson.
The same lap also saw the first caution of the race when Cole Whitt in the #26 suffered brake failure going into the steep turn one and plowed into the tire barrier, he was able to walk away unhurt.
Two rookie drivers had trouble when the race got going again. On lap 18 Larson missed the Bus-Stop turn and had to slow before he could resume racing and on lap 23 Alex Bowman in the #23 spun out of turn 6.
Lap 24 saw Kyle Busch to the pit lane for the first time as he reported having a lot of problems on the #18 car and Brad Keselowski in the #2 suffer nose damage after getting into the back of Matt Kenseths #20 out of turn 1.
Kyle Busch was back on pit lane a lap later as on his pit stop the fuel can had got stuck in the car and he had left his box with it intact, a violation of NASCAR rules and he had to make a stop and go penalty on lap 25.
There was another penalty on pit lane when Joey Logano in the #22 cars team jumped off the pit wall too early for NASCAR's liking and he also had to do a stop and go penalty on the next lap.
Kyle Busch was in trouble once again on lap 28 as he and Martin Truex Jr in the #78 car had a disagreement through the Carousel which resulted in Busch side slamming Truex but causing more damage to his own car in the process.
That contact resulted in the driver of the #18 car going to the garage area for repairs as Kasey Kahne in the #5 went to the lead to become the 2nd leader.
Ambrose went to the point on lap 34 when Kahne was on pit road as a lap later rookie Michael Annett was in the grass through the Bus-Stop turn after a shunt from Kurt Busch in the #41.
At the half way point on lap 45 Ambrose was out front from Gordon,cloth of them had dominated the first half go the race, as Kurt Busch, eventual winner Allmendinger and Johnson rounded out the top five. Only Whitt was out of the race and Kyle Busch the only other car off track.
The next lap saw David Gilliland in the #38 car lose a break duct on the start/finish line but the #95 car of McDowell knocked it off track which prevented a caution for debris being thrown.
Allmendinger was the first or the leaders to pit at lap 50 as drivers and teams began formulating the best strategy to get them the victory, clearly the #47 teams looked like it worked at this point but their as a bucket full of cautions to come.
The first of which came on lap 51 when pole sitter Gordon lose power in the #24 and was coasting into the last turn but couldn't get to pit lane so the 2nd caution of the race was thrown.
Johnson was into the lead for the next restart on lap 55 but the yellow was out once again a lap later when the 'Big One' happened out of the Carousel turn.
Newman in the #31 got into the back of Greg Biffle in the #16 as they came out of the turn which caused Newman to spin into the barriers and career back across the track and into the path of McDowell in the #95.
McDowells rear end tires broke and acted like a pole vault sending the #95 car bouncing into the barriers on the opposite side of the track. Danica Patrick in the #10 and Bowman in the #23 both had damage to their cars.
There followed a lengthy 1 hour and 21 minute red flag delay to proceedings as track officials and marshall's repaired the barriers and cleaned up the cars and debris that littered the track.
Newman spoke to ESPN after he had left the care centre about the incident: "Just glad that everyone, including myself, is okay. To be honest it's just a shame because those particular barriers are not upto the high standards you expect in NASCAR."
When the race got going once again, with 30 laps to go, Carl Edwards in the #99 car was the new leader but Allmendinger was passed him into turn one and back out front in the #47.
On the same lap through turn one Harvick and Casey Mears in the #13 car tangled which allowed Ambrose to jump into 5th place.
With 25 laps to go Allemdinger was still in the lead as Ambrose had manouvered himself into 2nd by passing Kurt Busch into turn one.
Mears was in trouble again with 18 laps to go when he spun going into the Bus-Stop turn whilst in 9th place, unluckily for him the race stayed green.
But just five laps later with only 13 to go the 4th caution of the race was displayed as Josh Wise in the #98 came to a standstill out of the Bus-Stop turn when he suffered a flat front left tire.
The cautions kept on coming on the next restart as into the treacherous turn one Johnson was spun by Kenseth after the driver of the #20 car had suffered a shunt from rookie Larson.
Smith in the #14 was caught up in the trouble when he tried to make an evasive manouvere around Johnson but ran out of room and hit the back end of the #48 car.
The latest restart with five to go saw a side-by-side battle between Ambrose and Allmendinger for the lead all of the way to the Bus-Stop turn when Ambrose outbroke the #47 and went to the lead.
But coming out of turn 7 on the same lap Ambrose got loose which allowed Allmendinger into the number one spot into turn 1 with six to go.
At the same time the 6th caution of the race was shown when two separate incidents occurred, first Denny Hamlin in the #11 spun out of turn 7 and hit the barrels at pit road scattering their contents onto the track.
Also Alex Kennedy in the #33 car had an altercation with Reed Sorenson in the #36 as they went out of turn one, it looked as if Sorenson forced Kennedy to spin which destroyed the #33 car when he hit the barrier.
This latest caution and accidents brought out the second red flag of the race for the clean up to be completed properly by the offials and marshall's at the track.
Thankfully for the fans and most importantly the drivers the red flag was only out for 20 minutes and on the final restart with two laps to go Allmendinger was the leader.
On the restart Allmendinger held the lead until into turn one as Ambrose struggled to keep the #9 in a straight line. Into the Bus-Stop Allmendinger had a good lead over the Australian.
But as they went around the Carousel Ambrose gave Allemdninger a tap in the right corner which allowed him to go side-by-side with the #47 car. Somehow Allemndinger managed to keep the gas pedal going and stay alongside Ambrose into the penultimate turn.
As they went around it Ambrose went wide allowing Kurt Busch in the #41 to close the gap on him and have a run as they shot towards the start/finish line.
Allmendinger took the white flag as Ambrose and Busch were battling for 2nd place. Ambrose muscled his way into 2nd but around the next six turns on the final lap he didn't have enough speed to catch the #47.
Allmendinger kept his cool for the final lap and took his first NSCS victory of his career. He then carried out one of the best victory burnouts to date and it wasn't a shock as he knew that he will be in the Chase in five races time.