Joey “Jaws” Chestnut Wins 5th Straight Hot Dog Eating Title

This is America. It’s also time for the annual Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest. The event, held every July Fourth at New York’s Coney Island calls upon some of the world’s greatest competitive eaters to devour as many hot dogs as they can in a ten-minute period.

Five-time champion Joey Chestnut scarfed down 62 dogs to win this year’s title, six dogs shy of his 2009 world record of 68 hot dogs. The 62 hot dog threshold was a large enough number to beat the second-place finisher Pat Bertoletti by nine dogs.

According to a report from ESPN, long time competitor and previous world champion Takeru Kobayashi was ineligible to compete because he wouldn’t sign an exclusivity contract with Major League Eating (apparently the fast-food equivelant of the NFL).