Jeff Gluck

USA TODAY Sports

SONOMA, Calif. – Most veteran NASCAR drivers know it's not a very good idea to block Tony Stewart on the racetrack. The three-time Sprint Cup Series champion has made that quite clear over the years.

Stewart is certain rookie Kyle Larson will eventually reach that conclusion, too.

"He'll learn it's not a good idea," Stewart said Friday at Sonoma Raceway. "If he didn't learn it last week, he'll learn it in the next couple weeks."

Larson blocked Stewart on a restart during Sunday's race at Michigan International Speedway, and Stewart angrily showed his displeasure with Larson the next chance he got (Larson said Stewart flipped him off during a caution).

"He will learn, just like we all learned when we were rookies one way or the other," Stewart said. "He'll either slow down enough to think about what he's doing or he'll be forced (to) in a situation where he'll have time to think about it (because) there will still be cars on the racetrack."

During a media luncheon Thursday, Larson brushed off Stewart's anger by saying "I know Tony" in a dismissive tone of voice.

"I felt him hit me and I was like, 'Oh, Tony is going to be pissed,'" Larson said, suggesting he didn't think much of the reaction.

"In sprint car racing, blocking is a little more, uh, normal, I guess?" Larson added. "I don't know if he gets as angry in that as he does in stock cars when it comes to blocking. But I guess a guy like Tony Stewart probably respects you more if you don't back down. So coming to a place like Sonoma, I'm sure we'll be around each other and we'll see what happens.

"I don't feel like I've done anything dirty, so I'm not going to do anything to make the situation worse – and I hope he doesn't. But I'm sure it'll happen someday."

Brian Vickers, who attended the same lunch as Larson, was asked to give the rookie a piece of advice about dealing with Stewart. After all, Vickers was the driver who retaliated against Stewart in 2011 by punting him into the Sonoma tire barrier.

"There's no right or wrong answer to your problem, but there are consequences," Vickers said.

Stewart on crash at IMS

Stewart said he was feeling "fine" after blowing a tire during a Goodyear tire test at Indianapolis on Tuesday but said it "destroyed the car, so it was a good hit.

"I am not really sure what the cause of it was, but that's part of tire testing," Stewart said. "That's why you go to the test. I'm sure they'll learn something from it and we'll go on."

Greg Stucker, Goodyear's director of racing, said Stewart had nearly completed a strong 20-lap run when the tire failed under speeds considerably faster than normal at the 2.5-mile layout.

"It appears that increased, sustained speed over that run generated a significant amount of heat, which eventually caused the right-front to go down," Stucker said. "Those are the conditions we have to consider in making the right decisions for the race."​

Joey Logano, who also participated in the Indianapolis tire test, said Stewart's crash was loud enough to hear.

"I think the fact there's no fall-off in the tire, the heat stays in the tire so much that eventually it blows out that shoulder," he said Friday. "At that point Goodyear said, 'OK, we've got to figure out a way to knock some speed out of these race cars.' So we went to a different left side tire. I don't know where they're gonna go from there."

Stewart, an Indiana native, has won the Brickyard 400 twice, in 2005 and 2007.

This year's race is slated for July 27.

Follow Gluck on Twitter @jeff_gluck