Human error caused final caution at Bristol

A long and bizarre day came to an unusual finish Sunday night when the caution lights were accidentally turned on from the flag stand and rain then prevented an attempt for a green-white-checkered finish. A person in the flag stand leaned on the manual override switch, turning on the caution lights on lap 499, according to Robin Pemberton, NASCAR vice president of competition. Six seconds after the lights were turned on, the flag man – seeing the lights on – waved the yellow flag, according to NASCAR's review of the finish. Pemberton said that the flag man can wave the caution flag without a call from series officials in the tower if they see a proper reason. The rain then arrived before the race could be restarted, giving Carl Edwards the victory.

The caution snafu did cause NASCAR to change the finishing order. NASCAR went back to when the caution lights flashed and froze the field. Pemberton said NASCAR only had to adjust three positions – placing Denny Hamlin sixth, Jeff Gordon seventh and Kasey Kahne eighth. Pemberton said NASCAR will work to make sure the incident is not repeated. Motor Racing Network