MJ

Civil engineering student Joey Chestnut set a new U.S. hot dog eating record at a Thursday qualifier for a spot in Nathan's Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest this summer, according to a Radio New Zealand report.

The 22-year-old Chestnut, who attends San Jose State, ate 50 hot dogs in buns in 12 minutes in Las Vegas to break Sonny Thomas' record of 42 set last year.
In that competition, Chestnut managed to eat (only!) 32 hot dogs.

Chestnut apparently said he had been hoping to chow down on 40 hot dogs and that he had eaten 48 while at home.


But eating in front of a crowd made the challenge more difficult.

Chestnut is certainly no (eating) slouch when you consider that he holds records for pork ribs, waffles — jalapeno peppers.

Of course, the great Kobayashi, who flies from Japan for the annual hot dog eating championship held on July 4, holds the world record of 53 1/2 hot dogs and buns.

He has won each of the last five contests, but has consumed less than 50 hot dogs and buns in two of them.

Perhaps the 6-foot-1, 230-pound Chestnut is ready to rise to the challenge this year.

He reportedly has claimed $50,000 in cash and prizes in a year on the eating circuit, and even won a car and a ring after downing 173 buffalo wings in 30 minutes to take Wing Bowl title in Philadelphia.

rjzeller

OOOH!!! A Buffalo Wing contest. Now THERE'S something I would sign up for.

I remember one night at Buffalo Wild Wings a bunch of pals of mine were eating boneless wings and had ordered the "wild", which is their second hottest wing.

I ate some and figured they weren't so bad at all (this IS Minnesota, after all). I kindly requested an order of ten of their "Blazing" to share with the guys (the blazing being their meltdown equivalent of the hottest wings they have). The waitress looked at me kinda' funny...

"Are you SURE?"

"Yeah."

She looked at the other guys, who simply nodded, so she said "OK" and went to get some.

Well...

....they were HOT. I loved 'em, but they were HOT. And only two other guys tried them (both complaining the next day that they still were burning from the inside out...all the way down....). I had to eat the rest, but must admit, them folks at the wild wings know how to do hot!!! By the time I got to the last one their was a chorus of "eat it...eat it..."

I wonder if you had several gus around the table eating 150+ of THOSE in 30 minutes what you'd end up with.

The results, I'm sure, would NOT be pretty. But I'm willing to give it a go...especially if you can win $50,000!!!!!