Runner-up Michael McDowell finished seven seconds behind van Gisbergen having pulled off his own comeback in Stage 3.
On Lap 75, the #71 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro pitted from second with a five-second deficit to the #97 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet Camaro of van Gisbergen.
Van Gisbergen responded a lap later, and once he completed his pit stop was just ahead of McDowell.
While most of the attention was on SVG for the win, McDowell was quietly chipping away just a second or two behind in those final 25 laps.
On Lap 93, van Gisbergen overtook Gibbs for the race lead and McDowell followed suit two laps later.
The race leader had by then already skipped away to a near six-second lead.
Van Gisbergen paced the closing laps, eventually winning by 7.288s after 100 laps.
Reflecting on the race, McDowell said there were fleeting instances when he thought he might be able to compete with van Gisbergen.
“There were moments when I thought maybe we can hang with SVG. It felt like he was just pacing himself off me and then take back off,” said McDowell.
“That second stage there, we got a little bit off-strategy and then we recovered well, which Travis (Peterson, crew chief) did a great job of getting back track position when we needed it.
“Just not quite enough to run him down.
“We restarted there 27th. I wasn’t sure how that was going to work out.
“We made pretty quick work to get near the top 10 and then it cycled around again and then we got a little bit of track position.
“I don’t know even if we restarted right behind SVG if we had the pace for him.
“That last stop, we came out right with him and he still had a bit of pace on us.”
McDowell was, nevertheless, proud of the efforts of his Spire Motorsports squad.
The NASCAR Cup Series veteran has been a regular road course front-runner but said there is still some way to go before he can beat van Gisbergen.
“We’ve got a bit of work to do. It’s a good building block,” said McDowell.
“Our road course program has really come around. I feel like we’re building on it, we just need a bit more.
“Like I said, it’s just tough man. Second is awesome, it’s great to get momentum back on our side. We needed it after a rought few weeks, but wanted to get to Victory Lane.
“Proud of Spire, proud of my guys, they worked really hard.”
The NASCAR Cup Series continues with the NASCAR All-Star Race at Dover Motor Speedway on May 18 (AEST).
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