Shop
Toyota steerer Tyler Reddick snatched victory after Michael Dowell essentially wiped himself out as he tried to fend off fellow Ford drivers Brad Keselowski and Noah Gragson in the run to the chequered flag.
A handful of laps earlier, van Gisbergen had been looking good to bag a top 10 result in his Cup oval debut when he went to the top lane on the 2.66mi tri-oval, before the Camry of Ty Gibbs halted their momentum.
The New Zealander in the #16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet in fact led on three occasions during the 188-lap race, on Lap 45 during a pit stop cycle and then on Laps 69 and 98 on merit.
At the end of Lap 188, Keselowski was classified second and Gragson third.
In an orderly opening, pole-sitter McDowell (#34 Front Row Motorsports Ford) and fellow front-row starter Austin Cindric (#2 Team Penske Ford) shared the lead initially.
Bubba Wallace (#23 23XI Racing Toyota) pushed Martin Truex Jnr (#19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota) to the front on Lap 6 and then Ross Chastain (#1 Chevrolet) pushed Daniel Hemric (#31 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet) to the head of the field on Lap 7.
Chastain had started 32nd while van Gisbergen, his Trackhouse Racing stablemate, had gone the other way, from 17th to the very last of 37 drivers still on the lead lap on Lap 15.
Truex Jnr, Chase Briscoe (#14 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford), Justin Haley (#51 Rick Ware Racing Ford), and BJ McLeod (Live Fast Motorsports) traded the lead while van Gisbergen was clawing back ground.
On Lap 40, McLeod’s #78 Chevrolet coughed and he jumped out of the front row of the field then pitted.
Stops were on in earnest over the next few laps and van Gisbergen, who had recovered as high as 18th on merit, inherited the official lead on Lap 44.
He was in a lap later and Chase Elliott (#9 Chevrolet) assumed top spot at the completion of the cycle, from Hendrick Motorsports team-mate William Byron (#24 Chevrolet) and Kyle Busch (#8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet), with van Gisbergen 18th.
Elliott, Cindric, and Kyle Larson (#5 Hendrick Chevrolet) – the latter trying to stay on the lead lap after an early drive-through – ran at the front of the pack thereafter in Stage 1.
Cindric pipped Elliott by four thousandths when the green-and-white chequered flag flew on Lap 60, while Larson was unable to keep his nose ahead of the bunch, and van Gisbergen was classified 23rd.
Once the yellow flag pit stops shook out, Busch led from Elliott, Blaney, and Cindric, with van Gisbergen 17th.
As Blaney led, van Gisbergen started advancing on the outside lane, helped with a push from Austin Dillon (#3 RCR Chevrolet).
He led the race on Lap 69 before Anthony Alfredo (#62 Beard Motorsports Chevrolet) got ahead, then there was a big scare for the Kiwi.
Van Gisbergen and Gragson (#10 SHR Mustang) got very close and the #16 Chevrolet got very loose before dropping all the way back to 24th in seconds.
Gragson took the lead and then so did John Hunter Nemechek (#42 Legacy Motor Club Toyota), while van Gisbergen was back to 14th on Lap 79.
That figure was 10th on Lap 91, as Nemechek continued to lead from Gragson.
Denny Hamlin (#11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota), who had an earlier spin at pit entry, nosed into the lead on Lap 95 before Chris Buescher (#17 RFK Racing Ford) hit the front on Lap 96.
Van Gisbergen led again on Lap 98 as the pace picked up with an eye to green flag pit stops, but then the Kaulig driver was shuffled all the way back to 13th on Lap 100 and Buescher was in front once more.
The latter kicked off the pit stop cycle on Lap 102, and the field was split into two groups for several laps.
A quartet of Fords was last to stop, from which Joey Logano (#22 Ford) and Penske team-mate Cindric emerged still at the head of the field.
The rest of the pack caught them but they were able to manoeuvre themselves such that they were not completely swallowed up, even if Buescher scythed between them and into first spot.
That allowed Logano to quickly reclaim the lead, and he was running side-by-side with second placed Larson, deep in Stage 2.
On the final lap of the stage, Cindric gave Logano a big push into the tri-oval and they finished top two, from Larson and Dillon, while van Gisbergen was 26th.
Once the yellow flag stops were done, Logano still led and Larson was second, until the latter pitted again, among others.
Logano and Chastain were on the front row to take the green flag on Lap 127, with Cindric and Busch behind, and van Gisbergen back on Row 15.
The first unscheduled Caution came on Lap 133 due to a crash near the back which took Haley and Christopher Bell out.
Todd Gilliland (#38 Front Row Ford) had slowed, causing Haley to slow and thus cop a nudge from Elliott, which meant he slewed into Bell’s #20 JGR Toyota.
Van Gisbergen was just ahead of the crash while Chastain was the leader by mere centimetres over Gragson at the call of the yellow, although that was somewhat academic given it prompted most to pit for fuel.
Eight initially did not, headed up by Alfredo and Larson, but then all but seven – including some of those aforementioned eight – pitted next time around.
Josh Berry (#4 Ford) and SHR team-mate Gragson were the front row for the restart with van Gisbergen fifth and Larson eighth, the latter having pitted once under Caution.
Hemric moved into the lead, and then McDowell on Lap 142, while van Gisbergen was shuffled out of the top 10.
A bunch of Camrys pitted with 36 laps to go so they could run hard to the end but McDowell and team-mate Gilliland continued to lead in their Mustangs.
On Lap 156, four of those Camrys were wiped out when Erik Jones (#43 Legacy Toyota), Wallace, and Nemechek all got together at Turn 3.
Reddick (#45 23XI Toyota) was one car in front and he survived, as did Truex Jnr in the middle of it and Gibbs (#54 JGR Toyota) at the back of the group, but Hamlin shunted a spinning Nemechek.
The good news for the Toyota camp was that Reddick, Truex Jnr, and Gibbs cycled to the lead when the rest of the field pitted under yellow.
McDowell was fourth with another three Mustangs behind, then Busch in eighth, Larson in 14th, and van Gisbergen in 28th.
The three Toyota chose the top lane for the restart and the four Fords went bottom, with the green flag flying again with 27 laps to go.
McDowell took up top spot and was trying to fend off both lanes with 20 to go, as Keselowski (#6 RFK Ford) and Reddick chased.
Four laps later, though, McDowell and Reddick were timed with a split of exactly 0.000s at the line, as van Gisbergen ran 16th.
McDowell soon re-established a clear but small lead, but could not shake Cars #6 and #45, and returned to the head of the bottom lane.
With five laps to go, a third lane was emerging near the back, and van Gisbergen moved up to lead the charge, with a push from Elliott giving the #16 Chevrolet some momentum.
With three to go, Busch jumped out in front of van Gisbergen and then Gibbs did likewise in front of Busch, but that served only to slow the outside lane and their hopes of a big result were dashed.
On the final lap, the Fords had the momentum down the back straight and it looked to be theirs to lose as they sped back into the tri-oval.
McDowell went high and then came back down to try and block Keselowski but went across the nose of the #6 Mustang and spun.
Keselowski could not avoid shunting the #34 Mustang and that cost him momentum as Reddick sped by them.
The NASCAR season continues next weekend at Dover Motor Speedway, with van Gisbergen’s Xfinity Series race on Saturday, April 27 (local time).
