Richard Petty had 200 wins, 140 of those occurred before 1972 (the beginning of the 'Modern Era'). Granted, before 1972 there were dirt tracks on the schedule, even 50+ race seasons, but after 1972, you had a 30+ race schedule, no dirt tracks, and Petty continued to win. He racked up another 60 wins from 1972-1984. That's an average of 4.6 wins per season, and that wasn't against a bunch of pikers, it was against the likes of David Pearson, Cale Yarborough, Buddy Baker, Darrell Waltrip, Bobby Allison, Bill Elliott, and Dale Earnhardt.
So even if you eliminate all the pre-1972 wins, Petty had 60 wins in 13 seasons, not bad.
Dale Earnhardt had 76 wins in 26 seasons, Jeff Gordon has 81 wins in 22 years.
Danica can get Petty's autograph, but that's about as close as she'll come to being a legend.
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