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.