Nathan's Hot Dog Champ Says Win Has Asterisk After Chestnut's Record Performance

The guy who won the 2024 Nathan's Hot Dog eating contest is well aware Joey Chestnut 's still the real wiener king ... telling TMZ Sports his Fourth of July victory deserves an asterisk -- but someone had to win in Jaws' absence.

We caught up with competitive eater Patrick Bertoletti on the heels of Chestnut's record-breaking performance against Kobayashi in Netflix's "Unfinished Beef" event ... which resulted in Joey downing 83 dogs and buns -- 25 more than he did in Coney Island two months ago.

With that being said, we asked the mustard belt winner how he viewed his own win now ... and he's not pretending Jaws doesn't exist. In fact, they're actually good friends ... and Bertoletti was in Las Vegas to support him on Labor Day.

"There's definitely an asterisk," he said. "Joey wasn't there, but somebody had to step up. I look at it like a strike-year, shortened competition. It was not my decision to prevent Joey from eating, so somebody had to step up and win."

Patrick doesn't care that his win is tainted in some people's minds -- he said the internet even "hates" him at the moment -- but behind closed doors, he and Joey can laugh about the whole situation.

"We just bring up that I'm the current Nathan's Hot Dog eating champ right in front of him just to rub it in," he said. "It's just funny, I've known him for like 20 years, and he's like an older brother to me. I love the dude [and] I respect the dude."

The big question is ... does Joey want to be back for the big Independence Day extravaganza after his falling out with Major League Eating?? Patrick says Joey does -- and he wants him back, too!!!

"I almost view this year almost as a gift, so I would like [Joey] to be back," he said. "'Cause I never expected to win this competition myself with Joey not being there. This feels good now,  but Joey has mentioned that he would like to go back at least one more time."

"I don't know if it'll be next year, but the Netflix contest was pretty awesome. So, he might be doing more of those."

There's more ... we also asked Bertoletti all about his victory ... and how it felt to be back in action after a year away.