The 2022 series champion found himself buried in the pack during a safety car midway through the final race of the season after being forced to double stack behind teammate Broc Feeney.
Looking to get his recovery underway as quickly as possible he worked his way alongside Lee Holdsworth as they rounded the last corner before there restart.
While the rules do allow overlap before the green flag, they specify that it can only occur after the apex of the final corner.
Stewards twice investigated van Gisbergen's positioning before eventually deciding on a drive-through penalty for the Kiwi – 13 laps after the restart and after a stirring charge had seen him work his way to third place.
That dropped him down the order and denied him the chance to cap off a dominant season with the final win for Holden and the final win of the Gen2 Supercars era.
Speaking post-race van Gisbergen both refuted the penalty itself and questioned the significant delay between the incident and the penalty.
"I thought about it the last few laps and settled down," said van Gisbergen.
"The decision is what it is. For me, Lee went wide to get a run and understeered on the marbles. So I just went. I didn't pass him, but because he went wide and made an error...
"If I was right or wrong it doesn't matter. But waiting 15 laps or 10 laps is just average.
"It was a pretty average call. I did all that work, it was a lot of fun, I got back to the podium and then they give you a drive-through so much later.
"That's a pretty average call."
That was van Gisbergen's second brush with the stewards for the day following a speeding incident in qualifying.
He was fined a total of $700 for both speeding in pitlane and not engaging his limiter, however he did escape exclusion from the session and the Top 10 Shootout.
Still he wasn't satisfied with the outcome and blamed the pre-Shootout investigation for what he felt was an underwhelming lap.
"I pressed my pit limiter as I came into the pitlane at the end of the session and didn't engage, or I didn't press it hard enough," he explained.
"I came in at the speed and cruised down the lane and thought, 'oh shit, there's no limiter on'.
"I was doing 47 or 46 or whatever it is. I was speeding.
"Normally that's just a fine, but they came back and they had a disqualification. I thought, 'shit, that's a bit harsh'.
"I was in the stewards room five minutes before the Shootout. Normally I'm preparing and running through my lap when all of that was going on. I wasn't very prepared for the Shootout."
Van Gisbergen made a rare number change for the Adelaide weekend, replacing his #97 with the #1 as a send-off for Holden.
Given the drama he faced across the weekend, he joked that it was the last time he'll stray from his preferred number.
"It's been a mental weekend. I'm never changing my number again," he said.
