Chestnut relishes third straight hot dog title
Here's one American champion who still has the fire in his belly.
Joey Chestnut crammed a stunning world-record 68 hot dogs down his throat on the Fourth of July to defeat archrival Takeru Kobayashi of Japan and win the 94th annual Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest on Coney Island.
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"The question was last year, is he going to be a two-title guy," ESPN analyst Rich Shea said. "Now he's a three-title guy, he's the Bill Belichick of the belly, this kid."
Chestnut's third straight victory in the contest came in the regulation 10 minutes, unlike last year, when he and the 132-pound Kobayashi set the previous record of 59 hot dogs, and Chestnut won in a dog-off. An ESPN graphic compared the 2008 match with other great overtime contests, such as the Red Wings' Game 7 wins in the 1950 and '54 Stanley Cup finals.
Saturday, the 218-pound Chestnut led wiener-to-wiener, even though Kobayashi also bettered last year's mark by downing 64 dogs. And did Chestnut save room for a victory dinner?
"Probably a Cobb salad," he said, obviously relishing the win, "something with ranch on it."
