More than half of the field elected to pit on Lap 62, led by Joe Gibbs Racing driver Ty Gibbs and van Gisbergen’s teammate Connor Zilisch.
It was at that moment the #97 driver radioed to his team: “Well, f***.”
Van Gisbergen led the Lap 64 restart and pitted much later than his rivals on Lap 77 under green flag conditions.
He went on to turn a 29-second deficit around, passing Gibbs on Lap 94 of 100 and going on to win by more than seven seconds.
“The thought I had was when I think Tyler (Reddick) and I stayed out, and then it looked like the whole field pitted, I went, ‘Oh, shit’,” said van Gisbergen.
“I think they were six or seven who stayed out, but a few of them were on better tyres than us. I think AJ (Allmendinger) was.
“At that point I was worried. And then when I took off, I really pushed, and I think I did my fastest laps then.
“It was quite surprising. The tyres were quite old. Then I started realising we might have a chance.”
Reflecting on his drive through the field from 24th to first, van Gisbergen said the permutations became clearer once his team started to tell him the gap to the leaders.
“They were kind of giving me lap times, which didn’t mean much,” van Gisbergen explained.
“So I asked for the gap and then how many laps to go out of Turn 1 every lap.
“Once Josh (Williams, van Gisbergen’s spotter) started giving me that info, it was awesome.
“Every lap I knew sort of how much I was gaining and how to manage my tyres versus how many laps I had.
“At first, I think it was 27 seconds, 20 laps, so I was a bit worried.
“Then their tyres weren’t going to get any newer. Once they fell off into the 75s, 76s, it was a pretty cool feeling.
“I felt like I didn’t really know how the race was going to play out, thinking they might make it to the end and how much they were going to fall off, and my tyres were starting to go off.
“It was a bit of uncertainty, but Stephen (Doran, crew chief) was always confident in his calls. It was really cool.
“I just drove what I did, didn’t question, and just believed in everything they did. It was a good team strategy day. It was awesome.”
Industry experts heaped praise on van Gisbergen for his incredible comeback in the closing laps, with NASCAR commentator Mike Joy comparing him to the great Dan Gurney.
Van Gisbergen’s seventh win puts him just behind Jeff Gordon (nine) and Tony Stewart (eight) for the most NASCAR Cup Series race wins on road courses.
Speaking on the final stanza, van Gisbergen said it was a thrilling conclusion to the race.
“That’s the best feeling you can get when you have a tyre advantage and an awesome car,” he said.
“I was just carving everyone up. Some people were nice and laying over, which is cool. The people that didn’t, you had to put good moves on. That’s the most fun.
“Then especially when the gap started getting less seconds than how many laps to go. I sort of knew it was going to happen at that point.
“That’s one of the best moments you can have as a driver.”
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