Who were the biggest stars Nascar ever had?

As someone who isn't a big Nascar guy and who just watched the Daytona 500. It seems that JJ, Earnhardt and Petty have had the most success but as someone who grew up in the 90's and 2000's it seemed like Jimmie Johnson never reached the stardom that Earnhardt or Gordon reached. I remember having a tech class in he 2000's and modeling a toy car after Gordon's car even thought I wasn't a Nascar guy. As an NBA fan I know that the NBA wasn't super popular in the 70's and then Magic, Bird, and MJ took the game to new heights of eventual global popularity. Is Nascar similar? Were Earnhardt and Gordon the equivalent of that? Did they have big stars prior to the 80's?