United States Grand Prix 2026 Recap: Antonelli Nears Title

And it's lights out and away we go!

Podcasting from Studio 2520, somewhere near Akron, Ohio, bringing you all the latest in motorsport talk and soccer talk as well. This is Tackling the Chicane.

Been a minute here, so there we go, there we go. Super streamlined. Yeah, we're getting there.

Yeah, this board has a decent-sized screen. We have a screen now, so that's a good thing. And it was suggested to me by a fan of the podcast that we take our original board and possibly put it in a shadow box and to hang. Yeah, behind the desk here.

It probably is inevitable that there will be some video portion to this podcast at some point. Are you teasing that officially or what? Well, we'll see what happens.

tacklingthechicane.com is the website, folks. If you haven't been there, please take a little stroll over there and see what content, uh, is available. Uh, in the future, I think we're gonna probably have, um, a little bio information on the two of us, because if you're a new listener, you may not know what the background story is. I won't bore you with it here on this particular podcast, but I think we probably should have a little how it started. Sure.

Potentially. Yeah. Um, and we will sort of continue to do the podcast in the vein of new listeners too. So hoping to, um, talk a little bit more about the mechanics of the, of the soccer games and the, the racing, um, as we progress here. But yeah, so I have been out of the country for— Welcome back.

Yeah, thanks. And have not been really tuned into what's happening. So this particular show is going to be a catch the host up show. And I am going to rely on my co-host to sort of give me a little flavor about what happened while I was gone. And then I shall comment on said, uh, findings.

Okay, so, uh, first off, Halloween. Any comment on that Halloween special? This will be dropping on the 30th of October. Oh, is it? This is the Halloween special.

It's the Halloween special. Geez, I didn't even get to put any— I know, I was wondering if you had maybe a sound effect for us or I, I don't think so. I don't think so. I should have done some Charlie Brown stuff that we could have got copyright. Yeah, that would have instantly nuked us.

Yeah, well, yeah, here we are, uh, strangely enough, just at the end of October. Yeah, where did this summer go? I don't know, it's gone. Although it kind of balmy today. So side note for fans and listeners, the thing about Ohioans are we wax poetic about whatever weather is happening around us.

So today I had a meeting for work and lunch afterwards, stepped outside and everyone's like, oh geez, I remember trick-or-treat when we were We had winter coats on and there was an inch of snow and now it's going to be 80 degrees. And I'm like, yeah, it's kind of— it's a little hit or miss. I don't remember that exactly. I remember some pretty poor days. They're usually— yeah, I mean, I remember there being cold trick-or-treats, but I remember just as many that weren't.

Right. I think this year it's going to be pretty mild. But yeah, just Halloween. So El Niño is the buzzword. Super El Niño, by the way, which I think has already been confirmed as being the largest El Niño event ever in recorded history.

So no one really seems to know what that actually means for what a winter in Ohio looks like. But I all the projections are that it's very mild. So good with that. Yeah, I guess last year was Snowmageddon. Yeah.

Um, so before people tune out, that'll be the end of the weather. Yeah, sorry about that subject. Um, yeah, I just, you know, Halloween, I had to at least say something. So let's keep her moving here. Let's get down to Bee's Nass.

Um, we've got a decent amount of news that has transpired. I think this podcast will be more so news, like covering topics of discussion, less like race breakdown, match breakdown, um, just due to the nature of we haven't recorded in 2 weeks. Um, so kind of talking about that and where else to start, we're gonna actually not kick off traditionally, we'll do the F1 race first. I, I don't feel like kicking off with the F1 race first. Okay.

Because I think IndyCar has, has pretty easily played the trump card in terms of, um, news, uh, over Formula 1. Um, and of course soccer will be on the second half here. But without any further ado, the biggest news to surface, and, and it was officially announced, uh, last Friday, um, but we had heard rumblings a few days before. But honestly, all told, kind of appeared out of thin air a little bit. Um, I won't beat around the bush any further.

IndyCar is headed to Barcelona, Spain in 2027. Um, and racing at that circuit in Spain. Now we know that was a Formula 1 venue until this year when F1 moved to Madrid. And, uh, it seems like everyone associated with that venue was looking for a new marquee event, and IndyCar fit the bill. I think this is a, this is a genius move on IndyCar's part.

They're riding the wave that is Alex Palou, right? So when they bring this series to that particular country or continent or part of the world, they will bring fans and fanfare, and smartly Smartly. I mean, the guy's a 5-time champ, right? Take him to his home track and watch the people come. I don't know what capacity that circuit has, but I look for this to be— and I actually— so they call these one-off, or is this— did they get a— I don't know if they got like a contract or anything.

They did. I am saving that. Okay. Sorry. But yeah.

Yeah, I listen, the more times that this series can get off this continent or this, uh, even country, country, yeah, out of the country, let alone, yeah, the better off that it's going to be. Let's bring, and let's bring IndyCar to, you know, the other parts of the globe. Now, hard to do because money. It costs a lot. It costs a lot.

So I don't know if this— you know, we're not privy to the behind the scenes. I don't know if this is one of those things where an opportunity sort of landed in the laps of IndyCar, because obviously Barcelona Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, um, obviously they were looking for a new sort of marquee event. Now the F1 that parade had left. It kind of feels like, Kismet, something happened behind the scenes because we still— do we have a title sponsor for this yet? No.

Okay, so that will be revealed at some point because you don't take this whole entire camp to Barcelona without having some Barth, right? Without having some kind of major, major sponsor to make that happen, right? And I don't know who that is exactly yet. I don't know. Regardless, I do— it's— I'm kind of excited.

Are you excited? Yeah, I'm super excited. When I saw that, and it was initially a, um, a well-sourced rumor, and that's what I— when I texted you about it and I was like, I, I I think IndyCar is gonna race in Barcelona next year. And then we pretty much knew it was happening, and then the announcement was made. Yeah, super exciting.

I, I think they— it, it makes sense. Um, Barcelona clearly want IndyCar over there. They want that big marquee series to race at their track. It seems to me that they are sort of financing the whole project. Um, for the most part, because again, you mentioned it, obviously it's a— comes at great cost to move the entire series to a different continent.

Um, and it seems like Circuit de Barcelona, uh, and the promoters there, uh, are able to finance this to happen. Um, which, why would you not take this opportunity if you're in car. Yeah, and I believe we've had some Intercontinental IndyCar racing happen in the past. Yeah, I think the most recent was 2013 in Brazil. Yeah, it sounds right.

I think that was the last time. And of course, back then you had Helio, you had Tony Kanaan both representing Brazil, so it made sense. Now you have a guy like Alex Palou who And listen, he deserves, yeah, as a 5-time champion to be able to go to his home country and race. And I know most of you guys are like, you're the last person I thought would ever say that, but I think it's true. And whatever is good for the series is good for me.

So yeah, I just think it's a really great— it's great timing. I think we've seen a, a marginal, but definitely their sort of rise with IndyCar in the past few years. I think, um, this is not an endorsement of Fox Sports with their other stuff that they do, such as baseball and, uh, NASCAR and others, but Fox Sports has been a pretty great partner for IndyCar. Um, they have clearly injected a a lot of money and effort into IndyCar. They've promoted IndyCar more than ever seen before, um, and it kicked off with those Super Bowl ads 2 years ago, um, and it seems like they are helping make shit happen.

Now let's look— remember the schedule last year had 2 new events, um, Arlington, which seemed to be a success in Texas. And then what was a one-off, the Freedom 250, which politics aside, uh, went off without a hitch and seemed to be popular amongst fans. So clearly IndyCar is riding a lot of momentum that they've been building over the last few years. And this is, this is the prime example of, of what this series could be. Um, we'll talk because they released the schedule in its entirety for next year, um, a few days ago.

Um, so we'll get into that, and there's a discussion to be had about that because as many people as you make excited, you piss off, right? Right. So I think if we hold that discussion off until the end of F1 when we're in the doldrums of nothing happening race-wise. I think that would be awesome. And we can break down the schedule and maybe even get into— if you want to do an entire show about where they're going to go and maybe what you think will happen, I think that would probably be fodder for a really good show in like, you know, January or something.

Yeah, um, so this leads me to my next point about this. Now I think it's obvious this is a big swing, a big swing for IndyCar in terms of, you know, putting a lot of time and effort into an event that may or may not be a success, but we hope it is. The contract that they signed. You, you mentioned, is this a one-off? It's not a one-off.

It's not a two-off. It's not a three-off. The deal— now we know how fickle these can be— the deal that was inked was for 10 years.

10 races. 10 races. 10 years.

Okay, so what I will say about that is, does it limit the series from going to possibly another region? Well, during that 10 years, in theory, as long as someone is paying for IndyCar to go, no. That's what I'm very, very interested in is, yeah, who is— so the promoters usually— now IndyCar, we know at IMS. That's their show, 100%. But the promoters of races, whoever it may be, which is usually, um, a venue and then the big title sponsor, are the ones that pay the money to bring the show there.

That's what's happening in Spain, and I think that's why they're able to pull it off. Yeah.

I think plus plus for the series. Let's get global people involved, just like F1 came back to the US in the late 2010, like 2015-ish, 2019 when the Netflix series launched. And now, who would have ever thought that the United States would have 3 F1 races in the same country? That no other country on the calendar has 3 races.

I think there's a lot to be said for taking this other potentially— I wouldn't say more interesting, but I would say different form of racing to the rest of the world. The racing is more interesting. 100%. Um, take it to the rest of the world. Well, that, that, that's the thing is you get— they have international drivers on every team.

You get a, you get a Spanish crowd, and in theory there would be, you know, people from France or Portugal or whatever neighboring countries that would be there too, that they're mostly used to F1, you put IndyCars on a track that F1 raced at until last year for 30 years or whatever, and then you see how much more passing there is, right? And you go, maybe I'll watch more of this, right? Yeah. And then, you know, why can't— why can't IndyCar go to fucking they would never do this. Silverstone, or yeah, fucking Japan, right?

Where— Australia, why not? You know, I, I love it. I think it might be a gateway to bringing the IndyCar series to the rest of the world, and rightfully so, rightfully so. They've earned their place in open-wheel racing. Just from the sheer fact that many, many times it's more entertaining to watch.

And most of the time, even with the same deployment of technology and what have you, the cars are really robust. Yeah. So they don't— they're not as fragile as an F1 car is. Um, but also we have to keep this in the background, listeners. Uh, the F1 car is going to change soon.

Yeah, I, I don't know the exact— I think it's '28 also when they're gonna do a completely different— I, I don't know, layout. Not sure about that, but I know they're bringing potentially a more even split of the hybrid and all that jazz for next season. Um, but yeah, but we have— trust me, we have things to say about F1 this week. But, um, yeah, I mean, I, I just don't see a whole lot of downside here. No, I don't either.

I'm misguided, I don't know. But I don't know, I, I think it's, it's gonna be awesome and And frankly, I've already got it on my mental calendar to make sure that I watch that one live. 261 days, 3 hours, 30 minutes, 57 seconds. Do they have a post time? Yeah, there's on the website, there's a clock.

Um, I know how Fox works and they're gonna put it on at a reasonable hour. Yeah, so that's the thing is Spain, I believe, is 5 hours or 6 hours ahead. I think they might be 6, but whatever it is, um, that would probably put you at like a noon start here because I don't believe Barcelona, the circuit, has lights. This will be during the summer, obviously, so you don't really have to worry about it anyways. The sun doesn't set to like 10 there.

During the summer. So, um, yeah, it should be at a good window. There's not going to be shit else on. It's the middle of July. There's baseball and that's it.

So I maybe struck gold here. I don't know. Yeah, good stuff, good stuff. It kind of opens up the, like, where would you want to see IndyCar go? And a perfect world.

Well, this makes 100% sense as far as the international fan base of IndyCar, because you're gonna plop this race in the home space of the 5-time champion who, regardless of whether people here in the States understand, people from this particular continent or country have been watching this guy and they probably hold him in pretty high regard. So I, I think it's akin to when F1 goes to Italy or Germany or, you know, that kind of scenario where you're gonna see just tons and tons of Palou supporters, a lot of fanfare. Yeah, which isn't bad. It's asses in seats, people watching IndyCar. That, not to mention the fact that the course I mean, it's gonna be superior.

Yeah, it's gonna be superior. Of course, IndyCar doesn't race on F1 quality venues ever. And I, I don't know what, uh, the length of it is. 2.894 miles. Okay, so that's pretty big for a road track.

That's F1 standard, right? So, and though there'll be long straights, long straights, sweeping corners, big Now I'm kind of excited. Grandstands, a pimped-out paddock. Yeah, I'm excited. I mean, this will be nicer than anything IndyCar drivers are used to.

I mean, I know some of those guys came up in the European ranks, so, you know, but yeah, talk about a culture shift. Like, the— I think the race before they go to Barcelona is Mid-Ohio. Oh, I was just gonna say, please tell me it's Mid-Ohio. I think it's Mid-Ohio or like St. Louis, the Oval, which either way— because, okay, listeners, folks, if you, if you're tuning in here to the motorsport segment of the podcast, Mid-Ohio is located somewhere near Mansfield, which means basically in the middle of nowhere. Mansfield is close to nothing.

And I'm not talking about the middle of nowhere in Ohio, I'm talking about the middle of nowhere nowhere, like in the entire United States. Um, it has forests around it, it has lots of elevation. It's a beautiful, beautiful track. Some— not me, so don't send a bunch of wicked comments— have compared it to be a mini Nürburgring. Yeah, in Germany.

Um, but it is very primitive. And we've been to those garages and seen what it is. Mid-Ohio, by the way, the race before. It's fantastic. Yeah.

So they're gonna go from a barn, basically, literally a barn. And we've seen the paddock at Mid-Ohio for IndyCar is a— you back your car into a barn. Um, if you have a shed in your backyard, folks, that could fit an IndyCar into it. That is what the Mid-Ohio pit paddock looks like. Very charming.

But now they're going to ascend to, you know, a facility that catered to— in the past has catered to F1. So I think it's going to be a very different scenario. And even Indy, as beautiful as it as it is, um, it sort of pales a bit in comparison to some of the F1 tracks that we've seen. So in scale, obviously nothing compares to Indy, but like IndyCar garages in the paddock are, are not anything like an F1 venue. I don't, I don't think so.

Not even close. No, it, it was built— there was the F1 paddock built for when F1 was there in 2003, right? That's 23 years ago, right? And has largely not been touched since. Um, those are the garages that have the merch.

Yeah, all the merch in it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But yeah, so fun. Good for IndyCar. Let's go to Barcelona and see what happens.

Um, we'll stick to IndyCar for just a bit here, uh, to talk about the AJ Foyt Racing Team. And for those fans who are joining us newly, or if you're not new, um, personal fan of the AJ Foyt program from a historical sense, um, just one of the You know, he's a 4-time winner of the Indy 500, which makes him kind of royalty. Plus, just do a little research if you haven't on Mr. Foyt, and you'll understand what just a great pioneer he was in this open-wheel series. Regardless, so now we have Josh Pearson to make his debut with Foyt.

NXT race winner, apparently. Yeah, so I won't sit here and pretend to know a ton about Josh Pearson. It's a name you hear when you tune into Indy Next races from time to time. Um, he is a youngster. I think he's only 20.

He's 20, Portland, Oregon. Um, what I have seen, because what I do a lot of times is when a driver's promoted that I don't know a ton about. I will go to like Reddit and see what like IndyCar sickos have to say about him. Um, apparently a very less than impressive IndyNext record. Granted, he's 20 years old.

Um, we know how this works. It's called he has money. So that's how you get in more often than not. So, um, I don't know. I won't say anything about him until I see racing from him, but AJ Foyt is a, a decent team.

Um, it's not— it shouldn't be— it shouldn't on paper be like a backmarker, although I, I think it might be just given his resume and his youth. Um, but yeah, we'll see. I mean a lot, a lot of chopping and changing in the driver market this year. So yeah, and so it's Foyt— or not, Pearson. And who is the other— who's the other cat that they— they still have Kyle Collett?

Is that— is he still a— no, I thought he got supplanted.

Uh, maybe they haven't confirmed their other I don't know, I saw it earlier today.

Dead air. Sorry. Uh, yeah, Josh Pearson and— oh, Dennis Hauger. I forgot about that. Hauger.

Yeah, Dennis Hauger. So I, I like Dennis Hauger a lot. I thought he was impressive with Dale Coyne Racing. Yeah, Kyle Collett got So the 2027 season of IndyCar will mark the 50th anniversary of AJ Foyt's 4th winning of the 500 in 1977. So let's bring a little mojo into the camp, possibly.

I know, it's always like, can we get one for him? And we'll— we won't know until the open— opening of the season to see if these cards are, are even going to be, you know, competitive, right? Um, but yeah, and I guess, uh, a fond farewell to, um, Santino Ferrucci.

Oh, I don't have my pot up, so there goes my— yeah, I don't think applause was maybe Maybe for you. Yeah, Santino Ferrucci burst onto the scene, came into the AJ Foyt camp, uh, finished— I mean, weirdly, over seasons, I mean, in kind of the top 10-ish mostly. I don't know, I thought there was— he was 17th this year. I think last year he finished higher. Yeah, I thought there was great hope for this kid, but apparently not.

Well, he's a one-trick pony, which— a good pony because he's best at IMS, so he'll definitely get a ride for the 500. But yeah, he'll be looking for full-time employment somewhere else. So there you have it. All right, I think that'll do it for IndyCar, and we'll move on now To the world of F1, and I will be honest, you missed absolutely nothing at, um, Circuit of the Americas, United States GP. Kimi Antonelli took your pole for Mercedes.

He of course won the race, looks like handsomely. Yeah, 13 seconds. Charles Leclerc did nice to battle. Good Decent amount of battling with Max Verstappen for 2 and 3. That was where basically any and all drama came from, as the rest of the race was, um, lots of time, a chore to watch, a chore to watch, as a lot of these races have been lately.

Um, Oliver Bearman had the dishonor, I suppose, of finishing last. He DNF'd after completing 24 laps. Colapinto and Bottas did not make it either. Um, some surprise. So that means both Cadillacs finished.

They did. Um, no, they didn't, because— oh yeah, one DNF, Bottas. Sorry. Yeah. Uh, Sergio Perez, 19th.

Um, the Williams were slow, the Aston Martins were slow, the Haas were slow. Need I say more? Really nothing major to report on here. Isaac Hadjar had a big blow-up on the radio. That was kind of funny.

Um, but yeah, I think we are looking at— I don't know— the clinch scenario. What was he pissed about? I don't even remember, but it was like really loud, really loud. I wonder if that's available. I'm, I'm sure you could find it, uh, fairly easily.

Um, I'm gonna— Kimi Antonelli clinch scenarios, because he had a scenario where he could have clinched the title last week and it did not happen. Obviously, I think Max Verstappen had to finish 9th or 5th and Russell had to finish 9th. Russell finished 8th and Verstappen was 3rd. I don't see— I'm looking at 365 to 242 in the driver standing. Um, it's over.

Yeah, it's over, Dad, because the main clinching scenario for him to win the championship this Sunday in Mexico City: finish P9 or higher. That's it. That's it. Well, here we go. And that's fine.

I mean, we're gonna crown either the youngest or tied for the youngest F1 champion ever. It will— it'll, it'll be the youngest champion ever. Yeah, yeah.

Yep. So that is kind of where we stand with F1. Okay, there's nothing— I don't have anything to say about the United States Grand Prix. Outside of that, we have, um, just for fan base, upcoming Mexico this weekend, Brazil the 6th of— 8th and 8th of November. And is that it then?

Well, there's those 2 races they don't know if they're gonna do or not. Yeah, hanging a boot doesn't seem like it. The website just says upcoming Brazil after Mexico. Yeah, it's—I don't know because that situation hasn't improved in the two weeks that we've recorded. So, I don't know.

I don't know when you put all your eggs in that basket. I think we're going to be finished after Brazil the eighth in November. According to what I'm seeing here, it— there doesn't seem to be any actual plans to race in the Middle East this year. Yeah, so except for testing, which is scheduled for February in Bahrain. Okay, well, if you, if you can phone your, uh, leaders and say you've got 3 months to sort it, which I don't think that's going to Yeah.

Well, I mean, I'm, and I'm happy to put a bow on this season for F1. It's been dire. Let's finish Mexico and Brazil and get the hell out of this thing. Yeah. We have changes coming to the car.

I don't think it's going to be next year. I think it's going to be the following year where, and I, I don't know, I have to do a little bit more research, but I, I think there's gonna be some major changes to the car coming up in 2 years. We'll see. Maybe come back with that next week. Yeah, I will.

Let me do a little bit of research. Yeah, research. Just a little bit of trivia here before we shift into soccer. Can you guess the youngest Formula One world champion? That currently holds that record.

It will be Kimi after Sunday, more than likely. But Michael Schumacher? No, close in terms of nationality. So he's German. He's German.

Red Bull, 2010s. Uh, last season was Aston Martin, 2022.

Bees, environmentalist. Oh, uh, I can see his face. Vettel. Sebastian Vettel. Sebastian Vettel.

Yeah, he holds the record currently. He won the 2010 World Drivers Championship when he was 23 years old in 134 days. So there is a fantastic documentary on Netflix, uh, Michael Schumacher. Yeah, specific— specifically the 1994 season of F1. Have you seen it?

I've seen that. Oh, okay. I didn't— is it old? Um, like maybe a few years. Oh, okay.

Yeah, I just think it popped in my queue on the plane, so yeah, that's a good one. Yeah. Um, yeah, so there you have it. I think we might witness history Sunday, so that's at least a reason to tune in. I mean, look, there's a— basically a child.

Yeah, is possibly going to be the Formula 1 champion. Yeah, I mean, I'm, I'm 3, 3 years older. Yes. So, all right, well, yeah, I guess we're going to soccer and we are I'm gonna take— we'll take one quick second. If we had a sponsor here, here's where you would hear the commercial.

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No. Anyways, we do not. Let's get rocking here on the soccer side of things in Again, this is, uh, more of a where the fuck have we been the last 2 weeks and less of a breaking down a certain amount of, of games. Are you going to start with Premier or— where do you want to start? I, I'm fine with either.

Okay, um, let's start in Scotland because that's a little more straightforward, I think. Um, I'll give you the, the table here. I'm looking. So Celtic have, um, stayed at the top. In fact, the gap to Rangers was 4 points when you left.

It has maintained that 4-point advantage. Um, a couple of interesting results last night as we recorded though. Celtic actually dropped points at home to Dundee United. And we're down 2-1 for a lot of that match. Um, and it, it's kind of the same old shit that it's been, you know.

What are the tactics of this team? We still don't really know. Why is, uh, your grandpa the manager?

We still don't know. Can I Let me posit this to you. How does this team who seems at many, many points, many, many places in the schedule play so oddly, I won't say bad, but potentially bad, has the most wins in the entire league. So is it our expectation of Celtic? Yeah, that makes it that way.

I think so. I mean, I think so. I think the standards are really high, which there's nothing wrong with that.

Um, yeah, I mean, I don't know. I can't— I cannot get a beat for the life of me on Rangers at all. I mean, they beat us twice in 2 weeks, you'll recall. A couple months ago now, back in September. Um, but then they will, you know, drop points.

Uh, they, they barely— I mean, they, they stole a point from Hearts last night. They were down the majority of that game, um, and were able to get something from it. They tied Dundee, um, a few— a couple weeks ago now. Um, oops, spillage, spillage, spillage. Should be all right, should be all right.

Anyways, do you wanna— should we stop? And what do you want me to do? Paper towel.

Trouble in the studio, trouble. A little trouble in our studio, small studio. Might need a little more real estate on the table, bigger table. Need a bigger table anyways. Uh, yeah, so hard to really get a beat on the competition here in, in Scotland.

Um, look, the main point here is Celtic are not good. They're not good. And, and we've talked about it, they might be good enough to win the league. What does that really accomplish for them? Probably just more of the same, right?

I mean, we're getting our asses handed to us in Europe. Every week. Every week. I guess that speaks more to the league, right? Or the quality of the league, possibly.

Yeah, I mean, I— it's still not where you'd want it to be. Like, anyone can kind of beat anyone on a given day, but over the course of a whole season, uh, Celtics seem to find a way no matter what. I mean, last year was sort of the ultimate testament to that.

Um, I, I think Rangers can and will make this interesting for most of the season. Um, we're a bit early. Yeah, I mean, I'm not gonna say like, uh, Celtic are gonna run away with the league. Frankly, they're not playing good enough to even make me say that. Uh, I think if Rangers can— it's still that consistency issue.

They just don't play consistently well.

And that's what holds them back. Yeah, Camilo Durán has the most goals, Nygren right behind, Josh Fowler with St. Johnston in the league. Um, what say you about Jota's return to Celtic and his kind of non— semi-non-existence? Yeah, I mean, I, I don't think I have any reason to really judge a lot of what he does given that he was out for 18 months. Um, any time he spends on the pitch is good for me.

I'm not expecting him to, to be a hero right away by any means. Um, it's really weird because last night we started Casper Hu, um, who had a nice assist by the way, um, did not score. Um, but we didn't— we don't give him a lot of service. And then we switched out our 2 wings, uh, to start the second half, and Casper Hu gets subbed off. And then suddenly we're crossing everything into the box to our striker, who is no longer Casper Hu.

Um, and it's just like, what? Where? Why weren't we doing that before? And Jota was like the main person doing that. Who came out ablaze?

He did. I mean, he had, he had that hat trick in August against Kilmarnock, and that's been it, right? So maybe we'll see a resurgence. Yeah, actually, I, I still think there's a good player there. And he, again, he had a very nice assist yesterday.

Uh, Camilo Durán getting the winner, Liam Scales equalizing when, uh, or Scales got the winner Camilo Durán got the, uh, started off the scoring, and then Jordan Sapsford got a goal for Dundee United, and Neil Faruga— probably butchered that— for Dundee United. Uh, kudos to Dundee United. They were a tough, tough team yesterday and looked like maybe they would pull out a win for a while there, but Celtic able to, I, I suppose, salvage a point. So again, that leads us where we kind of left off. Rangers 4 points behind Hearts, 4 points behind Rangers in 3rd.

Who would have thought Dundee would be in 4th after 11 matches? Not me. Dundee United 1 point behind them. The Killie Boys Well, it's dicey. It's dicey.

Your second team is also not so hot either. No. Motherwell, correct? That is correct. 10th position.

I sit second, my second team in 12th position with Kilmarnock. I don't know, folks. That's why we picked a second team to kind of try to give a little bit more flavor, uh, except for, you know, we didn't really want to watch just Celtic in this league. Yeah. And also in the other league.

But it has, it has cast on me a quadruple, quadruple, um, what's the word I'm trying to think of? Now I have to watch 4 teams. Yeah, I gotta be locked in. So gotta be locked in. Uh, Kilmarnock suffered a 3-1 loss yesterday to Dundee.

Uh, Motherwell able to get a, a real, you know, feisty point against St. Johnston on the road. Um, your usual suspects on the scoresheet for Motherwell. Ibrahim Said, Taiwo Maswanise, uh, Tawanda Maswanise, sorry. And, um, yeah, you know, uh, Motherwell is only 1 point ahead of Kilmarnock, so we're kind of in a relegation fight here, you know. So matches played, where do you feel like we're at in the overall campaign?

Are we just the toe is in the water at this point. I think we're a little past the toe, uh, maybe the ankle, ankle, and maybe we're, we're shin high, shin high, shin deep. Oh, you know, by 11 matches you can kind of snuff out, okay, maybe this team's gonna be in trouble, this team's, you know, gonna be gunning for a title, this team's gunning for a European spot. We can kind of figure that out by now. Um, Hibs are tied for bottom and I do not think they are that bad.

So there are some teams that maybe we don't have all the information about yet. I think we can pretty comfortably say Kilmarnock are going to be in a scrap this year for avoiding relegation. And that's kind of where we stand on that. One final note on Scotland. It is the League Cup, uh, semifinals this weekend, which I'm really looking forward to.

Of course, Celtic were bounced out of that competition by Rangers. Um, semifinal, so 4 teams left. Your matchup Saturday, Halloween, Rangers taking on Aberdeen in an Edinburgh derby. Sunday, Hearts-Hibs. To decide who goes to that final.

So 2 really kind of box office matchups. I'm looking forward to seeing how those go, and something to definitely keep an eye on, uh, this weekend, this, this Halloween weekend.

All right, um, alrighty. Well, on that note, we will cap off the episode with a little brief rundown of what the hell's been going on in the English Premier League, uh, over the past 2 weeks. Um, I'll, I'll lead off with this.

Surprised? Not surprised? Somewhere in the middle? Manchester United are still shit. Are you surprised?

Not surprised? Because I know you've you've kind of been off the grid, and since then, my oh my, has— have things gone from bad to worse. Yeah, for the Red Devils. I'm trying to look here.

Where— what— where do they sit here on the table? Uh, 13th, 14th, uh, 16th. Oh, there they are. 16th on 7 points. Scroll down a bit.

Yeah, I, I— what say you? I mean, you, right, you, you know a bit more about it than I do. I'm not sure. They just— it's not, it's not good. No, it's not good.

October 10th, um, which I think was around the last show we did, um, Man United drew 1-1 with Tottenham, and we were talking about who out of those teams has any actual fight in them. Turns out it might be Tottenham, who beat Chelsea 2-0, um, last week, which means that they've actually, uh, climbed a bit. Yeah, they've, they've jumped, they've leapfrogged Man United to the lofty heights of 14th. Man United, since you've been gone, it's been, uh, a 1-1 draw to Leeds in a 3-0 loss at home to Bournemouth. Um, and they're still riding with their manager Michael Carrick, who after that, uh, 3-0 loss to Bournemouth, I was pretty convinced that was gonna be it for him.

And they officially said that they're, they're riding with him. They're riding with Michael Carrick, um, come hell or high water, I guess. And it's Um, not been good for them, to say the least. Um, that is going to be interesting. I know we have our second teams to follow and all of that, but if there's a storyline that you as a listener are wanting to pay attention to in the Premier League, it has to be Manchester United right now.

Um, uh, obviously I don't need to go into their history. Most people know it. A giant that just cannot figure it out in recent years. Tottenham are there too, but Man United frankly have more, uh, history of winning. And it's the same old shit that we've seen the past, you know, the whole time this show's been a thing and even before that.

Um, just they look clueless. They look clueless.

So what I, what I'm seeing here on the table, um, we have wins and losses and draws. We have a tie sort of in the top for Man City and Arsenal. Of course, goal differentials, 7 points, um, 20 for Man City. And 13 for Arsenal. Um, that was goals scored.

Yeah. Do you, do you see— I mean, Brighton. Yeah. Where's— where have they been? Uh, Brighton are doing Brighton things.

They're— they've started off the year well. They did get smacked around by Liverpool, uh, 2-0. So I don't know. I don't know. That's one of those things, is, is it, uh Are they the real deal?

Maybe another storyline to pay attention to. They're very interesting to watch, but are they, you know, really going to be gunning for Champions League places come April? I don't know. I don't know. Chelsea took a loss to Tottenham, but they still sit in 5th.

Brentford and Hull City squared off, uh, the battle of our 2nd teams. And I guess how it should have always finished, a draw, 1-1. Both of these teams have started their seasons really well. Brentford sitting 6th on 11 points, Hull City sitting, uh, in a very respectable 10th on 10 points, um, with plenty of breathing room, uh, to the bottom 3. So keep it up, the Tigers.

That's where we are. We've got Arsenal and Man City Tied on points for first. Man City leads on goal difference. Man City did take their first loss of the season. That was a 2-1 loss to Aston Villa.

Nicolas Jackson scoring twice for Aston Villa in the 6th and the 60th minute. Of course, Erling Haaland gets on the scoresheet, but it was not enough on the day. So big upset there, uh, and props to Aston Villa for getting it done. Of course, the whole 114 charges scandal still looms large over Man City. Do— does it really matter if they win or lose anymore?

Yeah, I would argue no. But you still have to play the games and they still haven't been— had that punish put down on them yet. So until then, I guess business as usual, maybe. So that's kind of where we stand. Um, and to put a nice little, uh, put the icing on the cake, let's just talk about some of the games coming up before we head out.

Of course, Scottish League Cup, definitely pay attention to that. Um, your Saturday is booked with Premier League activity. Man City and Brighton, perhaps your, your most interesting of the card there. Chelsea-Man United kicking off the slate at 8:30 AM Saturday morning, so probably one to keep your eyes peeled for. And Liverpool-Arsenal, I mean, there's your game of the week.

Sunday. That's Sunday, 11:30 AM, as the Reds take on the Gunners. Are Arsenal set to repeat as champions? Time will tell, but I think that is all she wrote on this one. Okay, well, coming back next week with all of the latest coverage on motorsport and soccer, and I'll actually be able to watch some.

So good to go there. If you're good to go, I think I will throw the theme out and we will get gone. Alrighty.

For executive producer Richard Tanaka, this has been Tackling the Chicane, copyright 2026, studio 2025. Tackling the Chicane is recorded using Rode microphones. And a RODECaster Pro II console. They do not pay us as of yet, but maybe someday they will. And we'll see you next time.

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