Who can eat more than Joey Chestnut? Here’s the World Taco-Eating Championship lineup

Joey Chestnut will be missing from the World Taco-Eating Championship on Friday, despite taking home the title (and the $,4000 prize) at last year’s event.

At the time, he said he would return. But, Major League Eating made no mention of Chestnut in announcing the competitors for this year’s event, which is happening in conjunction with the Taco Thruck Throwdown.

Chestnut is likely recovering from his first-place finish at Nathan’s Famous International Hot Dog Eating Contest, where he ate 74 hot dogs and set a world record.

The big draw here is Matt Stonie.

The 26-year old is a Youtube star and the No. 3 eater in the world, per MLE rankings. He finished just behind Chesnut at the taco championship last year (with 83 tacos in eight minutes) and impressively ate 48 donuts on National Donut Day last month for the World Donut Eating Championship.

He’ll get competition from other MLE stars: Geoffrey Esper (ranked No. 4), Gideon Oji (ranked No. 6) and Michelle Lesco (No. 9) will compete alongside Pablo Martinez, who’s from Tulare and ranked No. 17 in the world.

Like last year, one local will get to compete against the pros for the $,4000 in prize money. That qualifier happens Thursday night. Friday’s eating contest starts at 8 p.m.