Jeff Gluck’s 12 Questions series has a reputation for getting NASCAR drivers to say the things they don’t usually say in press conferences. The real opinions, the behind-the-scenes frustrations, the stories they’ve never fully told. And this week, Gluck managed to pull one of those long-buried moments back into the spotlight: Joey Logano’s explosive 2013 run-in with Tony Stewart at Fontana. Thirteen years later, enough time has passed for reflection… but not enough for Logano to apologize. In fact, as he looks back now, he believes the “controversy” wouldn’t even crack the radar in today’s racing world.

Logano refuses to apologize for the 2013 Tony Stewart clash

Looking back more than a decade later, Joey Logano still remembers exactly how the moment unfolded and why he never felt the need to apologize. “The timing of where I slid into this whole thing was a little bit off. I was surprised about it when he came up all mad at me. I was like, ‘What did I do? What are you upset about?’” Logano admitted while reflecting on the clash that sparked one of NASCAR’s most heated driver confrontations of the 2010s.

The flashpoint came during the final restart of the 2013 Auto Club 400 at Auto Club Speedway. Tony Stewart made a bold move to Logano’s inside, looking to charge toward the win. Logano reacted instantly, throwing a decisive block that forced Stewart down onto the apron. The move killed Stewart’s momentum and shuffled him back through the pack. He finished a frustrated 22nd, while Logano salvaged a sixth-place result.

Once the checkered flag waved, tempers erupted. Stewart stormed toward Logano on pit road, shoving him in the chest with both hands before crew members swarmed in to separate the two. It wasn’t just about one block, but it was years of tension between a rising young driver and an established champion who believed the new kid didn’t yet “deserve” to race him that aggressively.

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Stewart’s jab, calling Logano “Silver Spoons” for his well-funded rise, only fueled the tension. Back then, Logano didn’t back down. “That was the race for the lead,” he said. “I felt the 14 coming underneath me, so I had to block him.”

And today? His stance hasn’t changed one bit. Logano maintains he made the right move, given the stakes, the moment, and the evolving culture of NASCAR racing.

A different NASCAR now and Logano knows it

“That would be mild in today’s world,” Joey Logano said, reflecting on how his 2013 clash with Tony Stewart would barely raise eyebrows in today’s NASCAR. And he’s not wrong. Once upon a time, that Fontana block and the shove on pit road were headline-making chaos. Now? They’d be just another Sunday.

NASCAR has always been rooted in aggression both behind the wheel and behind the haulers. Classic confrontations like Jeff Gordon vs. Jeff Burton at Texas in 2010, when Gordon stormed across the track to grab Burton, or the infamous Cale Yarborough vs. The Allison Brothers fight in 1979, defined an era when tempers flared big and bold. Rivalries weren’t just tolerated. They were part of the product.

But in recent years, the sport has shifted into an even more volatile gear. The new generation races with a level of intensity (and sometimes recklessness) that makes past disputes look tame. Carson Hocevar, in particular, has become the face of this new-wave aggression, both on and off-track.

His run-ins have piled up: the contact with Ryan Blaney at Atlanta, the reignition of a season-long feud with Stenhouse Jr. at Nashville, the pit road threat in Mexico, and several more clashes that left veteran drivers publicly calling him out. Today’s grid is filled with young drivers who enter NASCAR racing like every lap is the final lap of the Daytona 500. There’s no patience, no deference, no lift.

And Logano, once labeled the cocky young disruptor, suddenly looks like the calm veteran in comparison.

In the end, Logano’s reflections aren’t about regret. They’re about evolution. What was once considered over-the-line aggression is now part of the sport’s weekly DNA. The kid who was criticized for racing too hard has watched an entire generation adopt his style, proving he may have simply been ahead of his time all along.