Under the new rules, when a natural caution occurs with 10 or fewer laps remaining in Stage 1 or Stage 2, it will be deemed complete at the time of caution — with that same caution period serving as the scheduled stage break. “Long periods of caution laps and not enough green-flag racing,” O’Donnell said. No more elongated cautions laps. More green flag racing. When the field returns to the start/finish line under yellow, the leader will receive the green-and-white checkered flag along with the yellow, according to NASCAR.