On lap 60, the third caution was flown when Rusty Wallace, Ken Schrader, and Jeff Green crashed on the backstretch. After the restart, Stewart and Earnhardt, Jr. both battled for the lead until a huge crash occurred in the back straightaway on lap 71. This started when rookies Brian Vickers and Johnny Sauter made contact, collecting Marlin, Newman, defending 500 winner Michael Waltrip, John Andretti, Kevin Lepage, Terry Labonte; Johnny Benson, Jr.; Scott Riggs, Robby Gordon, and Jamie McMurray. Waltrip got the worst of it, as his car went into the infield grass. The friction, combined with the fact that the rains that had washed out the Busch race the day before, caused the tire rim to dig into the infield grass. The car flipped over three times, kicked up a lot of dirt, and came to a stop on its roof. A temporary delay under a long caution (although the race was not red-flagged) ensued as emergency crews debated whether or not too upright Waltrip's car before extricating him. The situation was exacerbated due to Waltrip's size.