The entire NASCAR community has witnessed countless on-track and off-track brawls. Be it a driver hurling his helmet at another’s car or another driver climbing the bonnet of another’s car and landing a dropkick right on the windscreen, we have seen it all. However, very few drivers were as unpredictable as the owner of the Stewart-Haas Racing Team when it came to these on-track fights.

Recently, Tony Stewart and his driver, Chase Briscoe, re-lived the former’s fight with Joey Logano at the Auto Club 400, ten years ago. And with that, they remembered a widely loved NASCAR pit reporter who passed away a couple of years after the incident.

Tony Stewart smoked Joey Logano with his harsh words

Throwback to 2013. Joey Logano blocked Tony Stewart down to the apron during the final restart of the Cup Series race at the Auto Club Speedway. Back in his racing days, Stewart was one of those drivers who did not like to be blocked. Needless to say, media personnel took note that whenever the number 14 and 22 cars were seen together, they must not take their eyes off the track.

Fast forward to 2023, Tony Stewart is the owner of a racing team worth $165 million, as of 2020. But he definitely loves to go back in time and watch his old videos. Moments after the race at Auto Club, Stewart, and the Team Penske speedster got involved in an ugly fistfight.

Their respective crew members intervened and pulled them away from each other. However, the “Smoke” was not satisfied and mouthed some pretty mean words at his opponent.

Steve Byrnes of FOX Sports came up to Tony, who was bubbling with rage, and asked that one obvious question, “Tony, what angered you at the end of the race?”

Stewart snapped at Byrnes, saying, “What the hell did you think I was mad about? Dumb little s** of a b**** runs us clear down to the infield. He wants to b**** about everybody else. He’s one that drives like a little b****! I’m gonna bust his a**.”  The editors may have worked overtime censoring Tony’s interview.

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In the first episode of Mahindra Tractors’ Mentor and Mentee, Chase Briscoe and his boss watched the interview and came to the conclusion that it was very ‘polite’ and to the point. Probably Logano never attempted to block Stewart ever after that. Both found it hilarious and so did the fans. But Tony’s cussing is not the only reason why the fans found this clip memorable.

Fans missed the veteran FOX Sports reporter

At just 56 years of age, FOX announcer Steve Byrnes lost his life to Cancer in his neck and head back in 2015. The entire NASCAR community paid their respects to Byrnes with the #ByrnesStrong hashtag and mourned his death at Food City 500 the following weekend.

The Instagram reel attracted several comments that revealed how much the NASCAR community still misses the legendary pit reporter.

Someone said sadly, “Rest easy Steve. You are missed.” Another stock car enthusiast re-echoed that comment and said, “I miss Steve Byrnes. So glad you all featured this. Probably my favorite interview ever.”

A fan commented on how entertaining the boss-employee duo’s reaction to the post-race interview from 10 years ago was and exclaimed, “This was awesome!!!”

Besides Byrnes, quite a few of them missed the old savage, Tony Stewart. One such comment read, “Oh boy!! And this is why we miss Smoke so much!!!!”

“I was at that race Autoclub Speedway! I always liked Tony but that day I became a fan!” said another.

As an avid fan of the sport, what is your favorite moment involving Steve Byrnes?

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