The Kiwi was placed 14th in the Jack Link’s 500 when he dived to pit road among a group of seven Chevrolet drivers with a dozen laps of Stage 2 remaining.
Van Gisbergen misjudged his entry speed and fought to retain control under heavy braking, narrowly avoiding taking out former Cup champions Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott.
Although steering clear of disaster, a drive-through penalty for pit road speeding dumped the triple Supercars champion off the lead lap.
He then sat in the ‘Lucky Dog’ position as first of the lapped runners for much of Stage 3, which remarkably went without caution and left van Gisbergen to be scored 31st.
Coming in hot! 🫣 pic.twitter.com/8J4C9T40nv
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) April 27, 2025
Team Penske’s Austin Cindric made the most of the green run to the finish, using the inside lane to narrowly beat RFK Racing’s Ryan Preece to the chequered flag in a Ford 1-2.
On a day of manufacturer-led team tactics typical of the superspeedway races, surprisingly it was a pair of Chevrolets pushing the duelling Mustangs at the finish.
Hendrick pair Kyle Larson and William Byron were locked to the bumper of Cindric and Preece respectively; Cindric’s lane helped by a small draft effect from lapped cars ahead.
It marked Cindric’s third career win and his first since Gateway last year. Close calls since included the Atalanta race in February, where he was squeezed into the wall late by Larson.
“I give a lot of credit, Kyle did a lot to take care of me, pushing me at the right times in the tri-oval,” said Cindric. “As mad as I was at him after Atlanta, I feel like we’re good now.”
Larson finished third ahead of Byron and Cindric’s Team Penske teammate Joey Logano.
“I don’t think there was anything I could have done on the final lap,” said Larson.
“I was doing everything I could to advance our lane and maybe open it up so then I could get to the outside, but we were all pushing so equally that it kept the lanes jammed up.”
Tough day at Talladega in our @SafetyCultureHQ Chevy. Just don’t seem to have any speed at the moment and I made a mistake getting onto pitlane trying to get everything out of it. Thanks to everyone at @TeamTrackhouse for their hard work, onto Texas next weekend 😀 pic.twitter.com/8RAgvvZstj
— Shane van Gisbergen (@shanevg97) April 28, 2025
While a truly big wreck – known as ‘the big one’ on restrictor plate tracks – never came, contenders did fall to incidents early.
Brad Keselowski and Ryan Blaney were taken out in a pit entry skirmish on lap 43, before leaders Christopher Bell and Chris Buescher tangled and suffered heavy hits seven laps later.
The Cup Series continues at Texas Motor Speedway on May 4.
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