Never implied you were trying to compare the two. It's a no brainer the reaction would be the same no matter the date, modern social media gives more people a voice in the matter, but as I said, some would be ready to roast Petty, and others would go on about their day.
Interesting story though. The Petty bunch said they were tired of getting beat by big motors, Nascar couldn't award first place to Junior Johnson's 2nd place car because they loaded up and left...hmmm. After nailing the Petty's with a substantial penalty, the next week Nascar made it a huge penalty to have a larger motor...and along came Carl Long.