Kyle Petty says NASCAR Hall of Fame voters nailed it selecting Jimmie Johnson, Chad Knaus and Donnie Allison

The NASCAR Hall of Fame Class of 2024 was announced Wednesday — a class headlined by seven-time Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson, his longtime crew chief Chad Knaus and 10-time winner Donnie Allison.

Kyle Petty, former Cup Series driver and current NBC Sports analyst, said he thought Hall of Fame voters nailed it with their selections of Johnson, Knaus and Allison.

“Great selections,” Petty said Thursday. “You can’t argue those selections. Donnie and what he meant to the sport — Donnie was the original crossover to IndyCar racing and he held the Cup driver record for best finish at [the] Indy [500] until Kurt Busch and some of those guys came later… And listen, you can’t argue Chad Knaus and Jimmie Johnson.

“Jimmie Johnson’s five championships in-a-row — I’ve said it a million times and it falls on deaf ears as far as I know, it’s the most underrated achievement in all of professional sports. I don’t just say motorsports, I say all of professional sports. What those guys put together for that many years… I don’t think we’ll ever see anything like that again.”

Kyle Petty predicts NASCAR will never have unanimous Hall of Fame inductee after Jimmie Johnson snub

Johnson received 93% of Modern Era Ballot votes, surprisingly falling short of unanimous selection. Knaus earned 81% of the vote while Allison drew 53% of the vote on the Pioneer Ballot. With Johnson failing to get in unanimously, Petty 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, Knaus and Allison earning induction altogether.

“It has been sad to me to read some of the comments,” Petty said. “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.

“… 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.”