The Kaulig Racing driver qualified 18th for the ninth race of the Xfinity Series season, for which his Circuit of The Americas nemesis Austin Hill took pole position.
Van Gisbergen is on double duty this weekend but there is no practice for either the Xfinity or Cup series at Talladega, meaning his first laps came when he rolled out in qualifying for the former.
A total of 20 drivers had already taken to the 2.66-mile tri-oval, the quickest being Patrick Emerling’s (#07 SS-Green Light Racing Chevrolet) 53.318s, by the time it was the New Zealander’s turn.
He set a 53.387s in the #97 Chevrolet to take up third position with 18 more drivers to come in the first of two rounds of qualifying.
Parker Kligerman (#48 Big Machine Racing Chevrolet) immediately bettered all of them with a 52.880s and he was still in provisional pole with 10 drivers to go, at which point van Gisbergen was ninth-fastest.
Unsurprisingly, he was subsequently shuffled out of the pole round and will start on Row 9 of the grid.
Team-mate AJ Allmendinger also missed out and was ultimately classified 14th with a 53.338s in the #16 Chevrolet, while Josh Williams claimed ninth in the #11 Kaulig Chevrolet.
Williams had clocked a 53.328s in Round 2 of qualifying, in which Hill set a 52.723s in the #21 Chevrolet.
That made for a Richard Childress Racing front row lockout, with Jesse Love (#2 Chevrolet) second on a 52.871s.
Cup Qualifying is next on Saturday at 10:30 ET/Sunday at 00:30 AEST, with the Xfinity Race later in the day at 16:00 ET/06:00 AEST.
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