World-renowned competitive eater Joey Chestnut has been put on probation over a bar fight in his home state of Indiana — but he says that won’t keep him from Nathan’s hot dog showdown on Coney Island this summer.

At 9 a.m. in Coney Island on the Fourth of July, a crowd was already snaking around the block of Nathan’s Famous original restaurant. They were, of course, waiting for the annual hot dog eating contest — a frenzied, ketchup-stained tradition where ...