Westfield’s Joey Chestnut seeks 16th hot dog-eating title
LATEST: Joey Chestnut won Nathan’s hot dog eating contest for a record 16th time, eating 62 hotdogs in 10 minutes.
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Competitive eater and Westfield resident Joey Chestnut is preparing to celebrate Independence Day the only way he knows how — by dominating Nathan’s Famous Fourth of July hot dog eating contest.
The aspiring wiener-eating winners will meet Tuesday at the Nathan’s Famous flagship restaurant in Coney Island. Competitors will have 10 minutes to down as many hot dogs as buns as they can.
Chestnut returns to Coney Island as the defending champion. He devoured 63 hot dogs and buns last year to take the hot dog-eating crown for the 15th time.
His quest for a 16th title began with a weigh-in on Monday.
Chestnut says he’s “more than prepared” to down more dogs than the competition.
“I’m going to be going into the contest tomorrow empty, loose, happy, healthy,” Chestnut told CNN.
To take home the title, Chestnut will need to defeat other champion eaters including Geoffrey Esper, Nick Wehry, and Gideon Oji.
The competition will be just as fierce in the women’s division, where No. 1-ranked competitive eater Miki Sudo will try to defend her title. She devoured 40 hot dogs and buns last year to take home the crown.
The women’s competition will kick off at 11 a.m., with the men’s competition set to start at 12:30 p.m.
The top dog in each category will take home $10,000. Each winner will also receive a mustard-yellow championship belt.
Live coverage begins at 10:45 a.m. on ESPN.