BROOKLYN, Mich. — Brian Vickers would love to turn the eighth pole of his NASCAR Sprint Cup career into his first win with Red Bull Racing.

"It truly seems like every time we have the car to win, something happens to keep us from doing it," Vickers said yesterday after beating Kyle Busch at Michigan International Speedway for his third pole of the season. "We just have to get past that."

Vickers posted a lap of 189.110 mph on the two-mile oval for tomorrow's Lifelock 400. Runner-up Busch wasn't close at 188.536.

Three-time reigning Cup champion Jimmie Johnson was third at 188.299, followed by David Reutimann at 188.137, Kurt Busch at 187.950 and AJ Allmendinger at 187.891.

Series points leader Tony Stewart, coming off his first win as an owner-driver, was 11th at 187.100.

"I actually thought it was a pretty good lap," Kyle Busch said. "I figured it would get beat, but not what it got beat by. Myself and Jimmie ran relatively close laps times and Vickers was up about a tenth (of a second) on me. A tenth at a place like this in these cars is a lot. I'm not sure where Vickers got that."