Can you really compare?

You can compare the two, but you'll never get an accurate comparison. There are WAY too many variables between the two driving periods. Petty and Dale Sr. were both great drivers, there's no taking away from that. But the one thing that people seem to ignore is pure driving talent. Gordon can dominate every type of track on the series, be it short track. 1.5 miles, super speedways, or road courses. And if you watched the Eldora dirt race earlier this year, you once again saw Jeff's pure talent in action. Tony Stewart is another driver who can race anything anywhere....he just doesn't have the numbers to compare to Gordon yet.