Kyle Petty predicts NASCAR will never have unanimous Hall of Fame inductee

Eyebrows were raised across the motorsports community Wednesday after Jimmie Johnson wasn’t unanimously voted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame Class of 2024.

Johnson, the seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion and 83-time winner, received 93% of Modern Era Ballot votes, with four voters declining to put his name on their ballot. With Johnson failing to get in unanimously, Kyle Petty of NBC Sports believes you’ll never see the day a driver gets 100% voted in by the panel. Petty added he came away frustrated with the reaction to Johnson not being an unanimous selection, saying it took the focus away from Johnson, Chad Knaus and Donnie Allison earning induction altogether.

“It has been sad to me to read some of the comments,” Petty said, via The SportsRush. “That we should name the four that voted against Jimmie and then kick them off the board. When did we grow up to live in a world where if my opinions are one way and your opinion something else, and I don’t like you, I vote you off and you’re off the island? That’s it. It’s either my way or the highway.

“… The sad part of this whole thing is not that Jimmie didn’t get in unanimous. Jimmie is good with it. And listen, we’ll never see anybody unanimous. If Jimmie Johnson didn’t get unanimous, I’m not going to see somebody in my lifetime.

Jimmie Johnson reacts to not being unanimous NASCAR Hall of Fame selection

“… I just don’t like the way we have taken the focus from celebrating Jimmie Johnson and Chad Knaus and Donnie Allison and these people being in the Hall of Fame, to having a massive argument on Sirius radio in every form of media on why it wasn’t unanimous. That is the craziest thing that I’ve ever run across in my life… Don’t throw rocks at you live in that glass house.”

While Johnson admitted he wasn’t bothered by it, he still would like to know who the four voters were.

“It doesn’t matter,” Johnson said. “Nope. It doesn’t.”

Knaus, Johnson’s longtime crew chief inducted alongside him, was a bit more candid with his thoughts.

“If this man right here isn’t an unanimous vote, I don’t know if anybody ever will be. He’s the nicest guy,” Knaus said. “The best race-car driver to ever sit in a NASCAR race car. He’s a huge contributor to our sport… He is the ideal picture of what a Hall of Fame inductee.”

Denny Hamlin, who raced alongside Johnson for majority of his career, called for the removal of voters who did not vote for Johnson.

“Not unanimous,” Hamlin tweeted. “What a joke a disgrace to one of the sports greatest ever. Make it public who said no and remove them from the voting panel..”