Tony Stewart relieved no penalty for helmet toss

Tony Stewart said he was glad NASCAR didn't penalize him for tossing his helmet at Matt Kenseth's car last week at Bristol Motor Speedway.

Stewart was at Charlotte Motor Speedway for a promotional appearance on Tuesday and told reporters he wasn't completely proud of his behavior in the aftermath of the IRWIN Tools Night Race incident with Kenseth.

"I don't enjoy getting mad like that," said Stewart. "It doesn't make my day. I wasn't happy when I did it, I wasn't happy when it was over, I wasn't happy when I got home."

While relieved NASCAR didn't sanction the defending Sprint Cup Series champion for his actions, Stewart would like to see better clarification of what is approved or non-approved behavior in such instances.

"I figured I was going to get some kind of a penalty for it, so that's nice to know that's something you can get away with," Stewart said. "I just with we could get a more lengthy list of what we can and can't do. It'd be nice to have that list. I think we could make it a lot more entertaining for you all."

As for his run-in with Kenseth and the promise "he'd run over" the Roush Fenway Racing driver if need be the remainder of the season, Stewart said it's water under the bridge and he doesn't plan on speaking with Saturday night's combatant about the incident.

"We won't probably,'' Stewart said. "It's not a big drama if we don't.

"We've been racing each other for 15 years now, it's not like we've not been through this before. We both know what we expect out of each other. Talking about it, it wouldn't be a new conversation so it's not something that has to happen.''

Stewart chalked it up as a product of hard racing and is ready to move on in search of a fourth title.

"I can promise you, we'll probably go out and race each other like we always do," Stewart said. "When you've got 43 guys every week, you're not always going to agree. You're going to disagree at times. This isn't new. This isn't the first time something has happened like this, and it's not the first time it's happened with Matt. It's never really lingered to the next week.

"We still both have teams capable of going out and winning the championship. We can either spend time worrying about him or worrying about trying to win the championship. I'm pretty sure he's thinking the same way."