After qualifying 34th in the #88 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet, the Kiwi was relegated to the back of the field after unapproved changes ahead of the race.

However, it was of little consequence as van Gisbergen rose to 27th by the end of Stage 1 before a touch with the wall again put him at the tail of the field during Stage 2, which he ended 31st.

While others, such as team-mate Daniel Suarez, found trouble during the final stage of the 267-lap race, van Gisbergen methodically marched forward and ended up 20th when the chequered flag waved.

The result drew level with his best oval result on the year, which came last month at Darlington Raceway.

There was little anyone could do with Kyle Larson on the day.

After starting on pole in the #5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, Larson went on to lead a staggering 221 laps while also sweeping each of the three stages en route to winning by 0.712-seconds over Joe Gibbs Racing’s Christopher Bell.

“It was tough,” said Larson, who has now led over 10,000 laps in his NASCAR Cup Series career. Only two active full-time drivers are ahead of him: Kyle Busch (19,441) and Denny Hamlin (15,613).

“I could get out to a good lead, and I was trying to do what I could to manage my tyres, but Chase [Elliott] is really strong at the end of long runs.

“We decided they could take control of the race and lost a little bit there, but had some restarts work out in our favour and then that last run played out well enough to get the win.”

Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney finished third behind Larson and Bell.

The #19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota Camry of Chase Briscoe ended up fourth, ahead of Alex Bowman in the #48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet.

Larson’s closest challenger, Elliott, slid down the running order late and was left with a 15th-place finish.

Other notables to have issues included the #11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota Camry of Denny Hamlin, who went behind the wall with mechanical woes after 194 laps and never returned. He finished 36th.

While Larson dominated the day, there were still 15 lead changes among nine drivers. There were also seven cautions consisting of 37 laps.

The All-Star Race is up next for the NASCAR Cup Series on May 18 at North Wilkesboro Speedway.

The next points contested round is the Coca-Cola 600 and will take place on May 25th at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

For more of the latest NASCAR news and analysis, visit Speedcafe US