It's been interesting to watch the back-and-forth since Kyle Busch won his 200th national NASCAR series race.  While many, including myself, have praised it as a once-in-a-lifetime accomplishment that will likely, never be duplicated.  Others have gone out of their way to nit-pick it to death, some venomously, to make sure everyone understands it's nothing like what Richard Petty did.

First off, no one is saying it is.  It's not apples to apples.  Everyone knows that. Kyle Busch knows that.

Interesting research by Jason Higgins that our friend Jeff Gluck published, to try and compare apples to apples.  He went through Petty's wins list and eliminated all those that would not have been contested on a modern Cup schedule (dirt tracks, qualifying races, 200-milers, short fields).

When he was done, he had Petty with 116 wins.   116!  Still amazing and still way ahead of the field.  That's 23 more than Jeff Gordon and 63 more than Kyle Busch.  Kyle would have to average five wins a season through the 2031 season to tie The King (and he'd be 46 years old).

Possible?  Maybe.  Likely?  No.

I tell you what.  Instead of comparing, let's appreciate.  Appreciate a guy who has run 998 races since 2001 and won 200 of them.  Appreciate a guy who is never happy with "a good points day".  Appreciate a once-in-a-lifetime talent who you get to see every week.