Yield

The Yield allows any one team to force another team to stop racing for a predetermined amount of time.

The Yield was introduced in Season 5. From Season 6 onwards, when there was going to be a Yield, the teams would find the message "Caution, Yield Ahead" in their clue. To yield an opponent, a team places the picture of the team they wish to yield onto the Yield sign (found near one of the Route Markers). When the yielded team arrives at the Yield station, they must turn over an hourglass found on the Yield sign and wait for all the sand to drain before continuing. It is suggested that this generally takes around 30 minutes. Each team gets an envelope with their 'courtesy of' sticker at the start of the race (which goes on the bottom-right corner of the Yield sign), and if a team's envelope goes missing, that team loses all power of using any future Yields. Teams like Linda & Karen (Season 5) and Joseph & Monica (Season 9) could not use the Yield, since they had each lost their envelope throughout the course of their respective Races.

Each team is required to stop at the Yield station, and state aloud whether or not they were yielded by another team, and (if the Yield wasn't already played) whether or not they choose to yield any of the teams behind them. In the early use of the Yield, teams were required to remove a numbered marker as well when they performed this act, though beyond tracking their placement in the leg, these appeared to have no additional purpose.

In Season 5, the sign was larger than in the subsequent series of the Yield. Teams weren't aware from the clues whether or not there was a Yield ahead. In addition, the teams didn't have to pull a number for priority, only when two or more teams were fighting to choose whether to yield a team or not. This happened only once, when Chip & Kim grabbed a number to reserve the option of yielding Kami and Karli, whom Chip and Kim knew were fast approaching. However, when they realized they were the last two teams, rules changed so that all teams were aware of their positions.

Like the Fast Forward, each team may use only one Yield during the game, and only one team may use each Yield. However, a team may be yielded multiple times by various other teams. From Season 6 to Season 7, the number of Yields totaled three in the entire race, instead of one on every leg. Like with Fast Forwards, Yields that are present in the race, but aren't used and have no effect on the outcome, may not be aired or mentioned. For example, Season 8 mentioned only having two Yields available on the entire race, but a third Yield on Leg 1 (New York-Pennsylvania) went unaired and unmentioned. From Season 9 and onwards, only two Yields were present in the entire race. Season 10 also featured two Yields but one was unaired and unmentioned. Season 11 had two Yields, both of which were used.