Hot dog-eating champion sets yet another record

Even without crowd support, winner gulps 75 in 10 minutes

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Joey Chestnut didn’t need a crowd or his closest competitor.

Instead, in one of the most unusual editions of one of the most distinctly American traditions, the San Jose native downed his 1,000th career hot dog, broke his own record by eating 75 dogs and buns in 10 minutes and cruised to a 13th victory in the Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest on Saturday.

“The hot dogs were really fast,” Chestnut said as he burped his way through a socially distanced postcontest interview on ESPN.

This being the coronavirus era, there were no throngs of fans packing the Coney Island Boardwalk for the contest this Fourth of July.

The unique circumstances appeared to work to Chestnut’s advantage: He was eating in air-conditioned comfort rather than sweating through the contest in the summer sun, and with fewer competitors to cook for, he said, the hot dogs were fresher and tasted better.

Chestnut started at a blistering pace, averaging better than 10 dogs per minute through the first half of the contest.

But by the time he downed dog No. 62 with a little more than two minutes left, the 1,000th in his competitive eating career, Chestnut’s pace had slowed significantly with no crowd there to pump him up.

“I hit a terrible lull,” Chestnut said. “I missed the crowd at that point.”

He labored through, though, cramming the 75th hot dog and its water-soaked bun into his mouth in the final seconds.

“Those last two minutes, I was able to nail it,” Chestnut said.