Tony Stewart makes passionate anti-blocking argument

Jeff Gluck, USA TODAY Sports | USATODAY

MARTINSVILLE, Va. — Tony Stewart vehemently defended his anti-blocking stance on Friday, nearly two weeks after he fought with Joey Logano over the issue on pit road California.

Logano blocked Stewart on a restart with 15 laps to go, pushing the veteran driver down toward the grass. Incensed, Stewart confronted Logano after the race and landed a punch.

But in the time since, Stewart has heard cries of "hypocrite!" After all, Stewart tried to block a last-lap charge at Talladega last fall, triggering a wreck that took out more than half the field.

Stewart, though, said Friday that comparing the last-lap Talladega block and a block with 15 laps to go at California was "ridiculous." The difference, he said, was drivers have to block at restrictor-plate tracks because they can't get away from each other; not so at tracks like California.

"I don't like it at Daytona and Talladega, either – but it's the position we're put in there," he said. "What happened at California is a different deal. The people that are trying to compare the two, honestly, I've read (which reporters) wrote it and it's disappointing they don't understand the sport any better than that. There is a huge difference between the two.

"I don't like blocking. I never have, never will. It's our job as drivers to go out there and try to pass people. That's what racing is about. We didn't have blocking 10 years ago. I don't know where all the sudden it became a common deal and some people think it's alright to do now and is just common practice. I don't believe in it and don't believe it should be common practice."

At plate tracks, Stewart said, "blocking" can be interpreted as trying to move up in front of a faster line to get a push. That same line of thinking didn't apply in Logano's situation, he said.

"If that's the case and that's acceptable, then why wouldn't drivers just do it the whole race and protect their spot the whole race?" he said. "Track position is important; why would you ever give up a spot?"

Stewart insisted blocking was a relatively new phenomenon that is getting increasingly worse. He learned from drivers like Rusty Wallace, Dale Earnhardt, Mark Martin, Bobby Labonte and Jeff Burton, he said — and those drivers never blocked him. They raced respectfully 15 years ago, Stewart said, and "your job was to go out and do a better job than everybody."

Those lessons have shaped Stewart's philosophy even today.

"I've never wavered in all the years we've talked about blocking," Stewart said. "I don't like it. I never have, never will. If you do a better job getting off the corner or on a restart than somebody, you did your job. And for somebody to sit there and just try to block you and run you down the racetrack because they didn't do their job right is not acceptable to me. That's not what racing is about."

Still, Stewart acknowledged there's a divide in the garage. He heard plenty of voices saying he was right in the Logano situation, but also heard the critics.

All of that left him shaking his head wondering and saying, "You don't even know what to believe anymore."

"People are split on it," he said. "Joey thinks that's alright, and that's his opinion on it, and I don't think it's right. Drivers are divided, and at some point it would be nice to know what that etiquette is. Drivers have always set the etiquette, but when we're all divided on it, it's kind of confusing to know what we should be doing."

Stewart said he did not believe NASCAR should get involved in judging whether blocking is OK. His personal values have served as a guide throughout his career, he said, and there's no need to defend his philosophy.

"I don't think I won three championships by making bad decisions for 15 years," he said. "I don't have a ton of enemies in the garage area. I don't think I made it this far by making that bad decisions."

Logano hasn't called Stewart to talk things out, but Stewart said he doesn't care. A phone call, Stewart said, is worthless unless another driver wants to apologize.

"If a guy is calling to say he's sorry about something, that's one thing," he said. "But I'm not going to sit there and argue with someone on the phone about how their opinion is different than mine."

Perhaps surprisingly, Stewart defended Logano on one point: He didn't mean to injure Hamlin. While Stewart said he's spoken to Hamlin and feels sympathy for his injury — the No. 14 even has a "Get Well Soon, Denny" sticker on it this week — the people saying Logano meant to send Hamlin into an unprotected wall were incorrect.

"I don't blame Joey for that," Stewart said. "I think they were racing. The accident itself, the crash, that's hard racing. Nobody would do that to anybody intentionally. No driver would try to put another driver in that scenario."

Follow Jeff Gluck on Twitter @jeff_gluck