NEW YORK — In a gut-busting showdown, Joey Chestnut emerged yesterday as the world's hot dog eating champion, knocking off six-time winner Takeru Kobayashi in a record-setting yet repulsive triumph.

Chestnut, the great red, white and blue hope in the annual Fourth of July competition, broke his own world record by inhaling 66 hot dogs in 12 minutes — a staggering one every 10.9 seconds before a screaming crowd in Coney Island.

"If I needed to eat another one right now, I could," the 23-year-old Californian said after receiving the mustard yellow belt emblematic of hot dog eating supremacy.

Kobayashi, the Japanese eating machine, recently had a wisdom tooth extracted and received chiropractic treatment due to a sore jaw. But the winner of every Nathan's hot dog competition from 2001 to 2006 showed no ill effects as he stayed with Chestnut frank-for-frank until the very end.

Once the contest ended, the runner-up suffered a reversal — competitive eating-speak for barfing — leading to a deduction from his final total. The 27-year-old Kobayashi finished with 63 in his best performance ever.

Competitors receive credit for anything in their mouths at the 12-minute mark, provided they can swallow it.

The two had each downed 60 hot dogs with 60 seconds to go when Chestnut — the veins on his forehead extended — put away the final franks to end Kobayashi's reign.

Kobayashi, through a translator, promised to return for the 2008 event.

Kobayashi's previous best was 53 1/2 in the competition that dates back to 1916. The all-time record was Chestnut's 59 1/2, set last month in the Phoenix suburb of Tempe.