NASCAR owned up to their mistake by putting Brian Vickers behind Mark Martin before a restart in the closing laps of Michigan International Speedway’s Life Lock 400.

Claiming he had a shot to put his car in Victory Lane had he wasn’t put behind Martin, Vickers deems the confession vital.

Subsequent to the race Vickers payed a visit to the NASCAR hauler to discuss the issue with NASCAR officials.

"They said, 'We made an honest mistake -- the 8 car [of Martin] was supposed to be behind you,' " Vickers stated during a NASCAR teleconference Tuesday, "That's all you can ask for. It's like when a driver on the race track gets into you, it makes all the difference in the world if they call you the next day and say, 'Man, I'm sorry. I messed up. I'm sorry. Let's just move forward from here on.'

"And I totally respect that. I've made many, many, many mistakes in my life, and I probably will make many more. The important thing is to just own up to it and move on."

Despite making a judgment that potentially cost Vickers the race, there is nothing that NASCAR can do.

"Unfortunately in our sport, and if I was sitting in the tower, I couldn't do it any different -- you can't just call timeout and go look at the replay and sort it out," Vickers said. "You look at a football game and they get a bad call on the field, they call a timeout and they look at the replay, they fix it, and they move on. That's one call.

"For those guys, it's 43 calls up in the tower; they have 43 positions to sort out every caution, not one. It's a tough job, and they can't just halt the race. They've got guys running out of fuel, the race is coming to an end, and it's time to go green and get the checkered out there."

Leaving Michigan with a fourth place finish, Vickers made best of the decision made by the officials.

"I was pretty upset by it and rightfully so," Vickers said. "I wanted an explanation of why that took place. I felt like in a lot of ways it cost us a shot at the race. There's no guarantees what would have happened, but it definitely hurt us."