Chestnut has won the long Independence Day contest seven times in a row and 15 in the last 16 years.
He kept 15 and a half hot dogs more than his closest competitor, Geoffrey Esper, but fell far short of his own personal record of 76 set last year.
Chestnut was eating a wound after arriving with crutches with his right foot on a chalk, though on Friday he told CNN affiliate WCBS he felt better than he looked.
In the women’s competition, Miki Sudo won her eighth championship, hitting 40 hot dogs and buns in 10 minutes. Sudo has won eight of the last nine women’s titles after losing last year’s competition while pregnant.
The 2022 edition returned to Nathan’s famous location on Surf Avenue in Coney Island, New York, for the first time since 2019. Covid-19’s concerns caused the competition to move for the past two years.
According to Nathan, legend has it that the first such contest was held on July 4, 1916, when four immigrants competed to prove how patriotic they were.