Sunday's LifeLock 400 at Michigan International Speedway appeared to be in Brian Vickers' hands as he lined up for the final Green-White-Checkered finish. That is until NASCAR stepped in.

The Red Bull Racing Team's driver was running fifth when Sam Hornish Jr. brought out the caution flag on Lap 197, setting up the dash to the finish. Vickers was the first driver with a full fuel tank and looked to be in good shape.

As the field lined up for the final restart of the day, NASCAR officials told the No. 83 crew to allow the No. 8 U.S. Army Chevrolet of Mark Martin to go ahead of Vickers. Martin was running sixth as the caution fell, however in NASCAR's eye that was not the case.

The green flag fell and so did Martin. The Dale Earnhardt Inc. driver's gamble on fuel did not pay off, as he ran out of gas as the  ace restarted. Vickers was forced to scramble past the No. 8 and was passed by Kenseth - who restarted 5th.

"I'm not real happy," Vickers said. "I don?t know what happened there at the end. We passed the No. 8 car with two to go before the caution flag and were seven car lengths ahead of him. They told us if we don't let him go they'll black flag us."

No explanation was given by NASCAR for the call, which left Vickers frustrated and confused.

"I'd love an explanation," Vickers went on to say. "I'm not sure exactly how that works. It wasn't even like we were side-by-side. We passed them like two laps before the caution and that pretty much cost us the race right there in my mind."

"It was not even a close call, just a bad call," Vickers told TNT's Lindsay Czarniak.