Despite spinning on his own on Lap 170, the Trackhouse Racing driver recovered to be comfortably inside the top 20 until his second spin of the day on Lap 262.
Van Gisbergen had been running 16th when he was tipped into a spin by Kyle Busch in the #8 Richard Childress Racing Camaro.
The first incident resulted in cosmetic damage to the right rear of van Gisbergen’s car and shifted the balance, but not drastically.
However, it was the second incident that, while innocuous from the outside, caused front splitter damage.
Van Gisbergen’s career-best oval finish remains 14th at Charlotte Motor Speedway at the Coca-Cola 600 earlier this year.
“Good rebound from the first one. Not much we could do about the second,” said van Gisbergen’s crew chief Stephen Doran.
“Great restarts all day. We’ll just go to Watkins Glen and execute, do our thing.”
Van Gisbergen replied: “Yep, sorry about the spin guys. Damn, we should have had a good result today.”
The race was won by William Byron in the #24 Hendrick Motorsports Camaro. He pulled off a fuel-saving epic, aided by a litany of caution periods in Stage 3.
Byron was able to make his last tank of fuel last 144 laps, pitting on Lap 206 of 350.
It was his second win of the season and ended a winless streak dating back to this year’s Daytona 500.
It marked something of a redemption for Byron, who ran out of fuel while leading at Michigan earlier this year.
“How about that for some fuel mileage? We’ve had our fair share of things not go out way with fuel mileage,” said Byron.
“Just super thankful for Rudy (Fugle), all these guys, all the engineers, all the engineers back at the shop, just this whole race team.
“We’ve been through a lot this year. It’s been a lot of growing pains. It’s been tough on us but it was really good today to get a win.
“Honestly, I felt like we had a good car and just kind of raced it. I tried to be there at the end and we were and luckily the fuel was enough there at the end.
“I think I ran out right there. That’s why I stopped.”
In total, there were 12 cautions for 72 yellow flag laps – the lion’s share of which came in Stage 2 and Stage 3. That equalled Texas Motor Speedway for the most cautions in a race this season.
The NASCAR Cup Series heads to Watkins Glen on Monday, August 11 (AEST).
Results: NASCAR Cup Series Iowa Corn 350, Iowa Speedway
| Pos | Num | Driver | Team | Laps/Diff | Gap |
| 1 | 24 | William Byron | Hendrick Motorsports | 350 laps | |
| 2 | 19 | Chase Briscoe | Joe Gibbs Racing | 1.192 | 1.192 |
| 3 | 6 | Brad Keselowski | RFK Racing | 1.378 | 0.186 |
| 4 | 12 | Ryan Blaney | Team Penske | 1.499 | 0.121 |
| 5 | 60 | Ryan Preece | RFK Racing | 4.199 | 2.700 |
| 6 | 23 | Bubba Wallace | 23XI Racing | 5.490 | 1.291 |
| 7 | 48 | Alex Bowman | Hendrick Motorsports | 6.763 | 1.273 |
| 8 | 77 | Carson Hocevar | Spire Motorsports | 7.263 | 0.500 |
| 9 | 22 | Joey Logano | Team Penske | 7.465 | 0.202 |
| 10 | 3 | Austin Dillon | Richard Childress Racing | 7.681 | 0.216 |
| 11 | 1 | Ross Chastain | Trackhouse Racing | 8.406 | 0.725 |
| 12 | 2 | Austin Cindric | Team Penske | 8.678 | 0.272 |
| 13 | 21 | Josh Berry | Wood Brothers Racing | 10.064 | 1.386 |
| 14 | 9 | Chase Elliott | Hendrick Motorsports | 12.214 | 2.150 |
| 15 | 42 | John Hunter Nemechek | Legacy Motor Club | 12.778 | 0.564 |
| 16 | 43 | Erik Jones | Legacy Motor Club | 13.039 | 0.261 |
| 17 | 20 | Christopher Bell | Joe Gibbs Racing | 13.172 | 0.133 |
| 18 | 16 | AJ Allmendinger | Kaulig Racing | 13.354 | 0.182 |
| 19 | 45 | Tyler Reddick | 23XI Racing | 13.384 | 0.030 |
| 20 | 8 | Kyle Busch | Richard Childress Racing | 13.930 | 0.546 |
| 21 | 54 | Ty Gibbs | Joe Gibbs Racing | 15.405 | 1.475 |
| 22 | 17 | Chris Buescher | RFK Racing | 15.815 | 0.410 |
| 23 | 7 | Justin Haley | Spire Motorsports | 17.373 | 1.558 |
| 24 | 11 | Denny Hamlin | Joe Gibbs Racing | 18.111 | 0.738 |
| 25 | 99 | Daniel Suarez | Trackhouse Racing | 18.833 | 0.722 |
| 26 | 41 | Cole Custer | Haas Factory Team | 19.008 | 0.175 |
| 27 | 71 | Michael McDowell | Spire Motorsports | 20.252 | 1.244 |
| 28 | 5 | Kyle Larson | Hendrick Motorsports | 20.918 | 0.666 |
| 29 | 4 | Noah Gragson | Front Row Motorsports | 21.842 | 0.924 |
| 30 | 35 | Riley Herbst | 23XI Racing | 21.925 | 0.083 |
| 31 | 88 | Shane Van Gisbergen | Trackhouse Racing | 1 lap | |
| 32 | 51 | Cody Ware | Rick Ware Racing | 1 lap | |
| 33 | 47 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | Hyak Motorsports | 3 laps | 2 laps |
| 34 | 34 | Todd Gilliland | Front Row Motorsports | 3 laps | |
| 35 | 10 | Ty Dillon | Kaulig Racing | 4 laps | 1 lap |
| 36 | 38 | Zane Smith | Front Row Motorsports | 6 laps | 2 laps |
| 37 | 66 | Joey Gase | Garage 66 | 10 laps | 4 laps |
Get the latest NASCAR news, stats and betting insights at MotorRacing.com
Discussion about this post