Sports Today: NASCAR and Monday Night Football, EPL and NFL

It’s been a wild Sports Today weekend Part 2 that began with NASCAR Cup Series racing through endless Stage 3 yellows that ended spectacularly at the checkered flag via Overtime from Kansas.

Then we had lots of Monday Night Football from the best of both Footballs: Premier League (Soccer) and the NFL including the doubleheader games from coast to coast.

Sports Today Headline starts off with the NASCAR Cup Series: Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway

It was a dominant Toyota afternoon based on speed alone from Kansas Speedway until Chevy’s Chase Elliott from Hendrick Motorsports took away that last-lap win at overtime as Bubba Wallace not far from victory lane in 5th place for 23XI Racing.

He hasn’t had the best of starts from 7th following his good qualifying performance but did however benefit from his long run setup at the expense of yellows & more yellows with much-needed adjustments for the No.23 Camry to play catch-up.

He was not far from Top 10 at the end of Stage 1 followed by Top 6 going into Stage 3 and almost won it against Denny and later Chase from behind – only for Bubba to settle for the last remaining Top 5 spot. 

Should be proud of himself at a place he won before in this same race track at the same September-October race a few years ago. Now all eyes if he can at least get out of a must win position next weekend on the Roval at Charlotte.

RFK always turns up Top 10 at the finish line this time though to co-owner Brad Keselowski in 8th, especially when these late yellows helped him gain a handy few improvements at the checkered flag.

Didn’t hear much from Brad K at the back earlier throughout the 1st half.

Not only he’s was thankful to not just still be running lead lap, he’s also happy with avoiding that traffic smash jam of yellows – and he was able to turn that around into a solid Top 10 finish for his No.6 Ford crew. 

Like Bubba’s team, Roush & Keselowski are a team who always know what it takes to be next to those front-runners – despite the fact that all three cars are not in Playoff contention, they should be in there.

And Shane Van Gisbergen aka SVG, how good?? He’s just got his first Ovals Top 10 Cup finish in 10th for Trackhouse Racing.

Like many others, SVG was at the back from starting 24th who didn’t have the best of starts to begin with. But if we put his best road course thinking cap on at an oval, he made up so much track position from surviving yellows including endless restarts to taking advantage of pit road.

He went on to break just inside Top 20 at the end of Stage 2, pushed as hard as he can with patience and to see SVG record his best oval finish to date, it’s amazing.

Sure everyone will be convinced at some point that SVG would be more than just your usual best road course racer in NASCAR, which is why owner Justin Marks has invested in him in the first place.

Also, it could’ve been even better if he’s still in the Playoffs at the perfect time going into the next race — on a road course at Charlotte that isn’t the opening 16. 

But we’d always knew his lack of ovals experience would put SVG at odds from the start. Still it’s a good first step though before SVG can go on & challenge someone someday who’s also won a few road course races before, Chase Elliott.

Beyond Elliott’s win, also oh so close Denny Hamlin who finished runner-up with two winning first-half stages. 

If it wasn’t for the power steering difficulties and some jack pump issue on pit road, Denny would’ve had the perfect day but at least he was still in the fight through the very end. Good news is that he’s fourth on Playoffs points but he needs more front row finishes and maybe, this could finally be his year come Phoenix.

Premier League Matchday 6 of 38: Everton v West Ham United

Monday Night Football began early but with Premier League Soccer to finish Matchday 6 of 38 on Everton’s new home at Hill Dickinson Stadium. 

It’s been a score to settle with the 1-1 draw by David Moyes’ Everton and David Moyes’ former side West Ham United who just had yet another change of manager and it’s Nuno Espírito Santo from Portugal. 

Everton got away with a good start courtesy of veteran centre-half Michael Keane on what has been a stunning James Garner cross kick from midfield.

But them swinging and missing while trying to extend their good 1-0 lead had eventually gone into waste.

That’s when the Hammers found tack for Jarrod Bowen with the equaliser in the 2nd half and that was it amid frustrating shots on target and a series of “yellow flag” fouls including Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall in particular with a yellow card. 

Can see his body language there where he had no idea what just happened there? But he will have to sit out next match.

I know it’s Moyesball when his tactics is not possession-based and more on defense with lightning fast counter-attacks but sometimes it will take time for Everton to be the best amongst Top 4 in the PL. He’s got the new owners’ backing of Dan Friedkin with the huge financial muscle needed both Top 4 and Cup trophies across England & Europe.

Moyes only won silverware a few times so far other than consistent Top 6 PL finishes including the 2023 UEFA Conference League Final triumph with West Ham.

With West Ham right now, time flies so fast when Nuno was sacked three weeks ago by Nottingham Forest. This comes after Nuno being dissatisfied with Nottingham’s owner with the team’s transfer approach lately before Forest replaced him with Australia’s own Ange Postecoglou and then somehow he’s gone straight back to work thanks to West Ham.

Also good to see Nuno used some good young talent off the bench like Academy product central midfielder Freddie Potts to speedy winger Luis Guilherme.

Remains to be seen though if they can step up every week including this team’s striking options up front with 1-2 senior players right now always injury-prone.

West Ham sacked Graham Potter also the other day especially with transfers that took so long throughout the summer. 

Although you can tell that co-owner David Sullivan had something to blame with this when he always wanted signings that comes from his favourite agents than anything data-based scouting in modern football. Maybe it’s best he steps back from day-to-day operations for sure since he’s done a lot to the club despite lots of fan grievances over the past 15 years. 

Also, the club had to sell before buying when their previous biggest spend of transfers didn’t quite work out, and had to abide with the PSR rules – or else they get hit with the penalty & points deduction.

While Everton is comfortably sitting just inside Top 10 at 9th spot of the ladder, still more work to from West Ham who needs to get out of the bottom three relegation bubble sooner than later in 18th.

Every PL game is live on Stan Sport with 2 x weekend free-to-air replays on 9Go.

NFL’s Monday Night Football Doubleheader Week 4

Now there’s more Monday Night Football with a different kind of football, pads, gloves and a helmet on than just shin guards where we saw two matches all on one night to finish Week 4/18 of the 2025 NFL Season.

So close there by the New York Jets from behind particularly in the 2nd half (or the last two quarters) but not enough to hold back the Dolphins on time in Miami.

Their first half needs momentum by toning down these handling errors other than just taking field goal kicks. The fightback was there though with credit to NY Jets Quarterback No.7 Justin Fields where he was up there running at the attacking third – just lacks some attacking direction sometimes when being a touch isolated hits hard right back at you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpY-prgGbJk

Looking at Miami, they were the winning team every time the Dolphins went bang, bang, bang from defensive stops and turnovers to attack – it was unreal. 

Great to see new signing by Tight End Darren Waller score two touchdowns while their star running back De’Von Achane got away with exceptional pace especially when he ran out wide with some bits of space.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e88kkikrnLU

Really good game by both teams from 3-10 at half-time to 21-27 in the end.

Meanwhile, what happened to the Cincinnati Bengals? They were 3-0 earlier on but then it was about the Broncos when the Bengals were stuck in first gear all along in Denver, 3-28. 

Their passage of play simply lacks cohesion with a lack of numbers there to finish the job for Cincinnati – despite some ball opportunities here and there. 

Broncos, on the other hand, used width through the game to inject pace with more successful offensive plays many times than the Bengals.

Wide Receiver Marvin Mims Jr. has been busy beating opposing defenders all night long while Bo Nix unlocked these key landing spots as the main Broncos QB Playmaker. He also scored one TD from the 1st quarter through a quick dash to the in-goal area.

Here’s more Broncos fix for you…

And if you’re also into a team that’s called the Broncos, there’s one right here at the heart of Brisbane in the National Rugby League competition having just ended the Penrith Panthers four-peat Premiership hoodoo on their own fortress at Suncorp Stadium two days back. It’s also the place where the Panthers began to make big time history when the Grand Final was held there instead of Sydney back in 2021 due to COVID and now the Broncos were the one to stop that themselves. Wow! They are now set to contest the Grand Final against the Melbourne Storm this Sunday at Accor Stadium in Homebush.

Should the Broncos can win this one, it would be a a double triumph for the city having seen the Brisbane Lions defend their Premiership crown following their AFL Grand Final win the other day v Geelong.