For some years after 2007, NASCAR on Fox referred to the extra laps after the scheduled number as Overdrive, an allusion to the term overtime used in many other sports.
During the event at Gateway International Raceway on July 28, 2006, 22 laps (27.5 miles) were added to the 120-lap (150-mile) scheduled distance.
This was adopted at superspeedway events (Daytona & Talladega) to prevent multiple crashes, which were common at those races, and which were proving very costly to the teams.
In April 2005, two green-white-checkered attempts were used at Phoenix International Raceway for a then-called NASCAR West Series race.
The NASCAR Truck Series adopted a green-white-checkered flag rule initially during nationally televised 200-lap exhibition races at Tucson Raceway Park in Arizona.
That rule was eliminated in September 2003 as a result of the ban on racing back to the caution following a dangerous incident in Loudon.
(Not counting the caution laps on the final segment would turn out to be controversial at the 2022 running, now known simply as the All-Star Race, when Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. spun out on the final turn of the final lap of that year's race as Ryan Blaney crossed the finish line, resulting in Blaney doing the overtime laps under current overtime rules to secure his victory with an unsecured window net, a safety violation.)
The implementation was inconsistent and led to controversy and accidents, especially on the two restrictor plate tracks (Daytona International Speedway and Talladega Superspeedway).
Positions are frozen at the moment of the yellow flag, and the scoring is official as cars cross the finish line.
Greg Biffle was the leader on the final lap when the caution flag was shown, but his car then ran out of fuel.
If a caution period starts, or continues, any time with two laps remaining in the scheduled distance, NASCAR allows at least one attempt to finish the race under green flag conditions.
With two laps to go, during an official green-white checkered, Jeff Gordon got into the back of Greg Biffle, creating a multi-car wreck and giving the win to Kevin Harvick.
Following a controversy surrounding the 2015 CampingWorld.com 500 at Talladega, in which Harvick made questionable moves with a damaged car in the final restart attempt in order to secure his playoff position, NASCAR moved to infinite attempts in 2016, among other rule changes instituted after Austin Dillon's accident at the 2015 Coke Zero 400.
In the event of a race ending due to caution, video evidence is used in addition to scoring loops to determine the official order of finish.
A green-white-checkered finish will extend the race beyond its advertised distance, and competitors are not allowed to pit for fuel without giving up track position.
Often short track races that run less than 55 km (35 miles) will use a rule that states no caution laps count.