USMNT vs Australia 2025 Recap: Haji Wright Brace, Schumacher Buzz

At 25 years of age, his first ever World Cup.

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

Little Boston there. More Than a Feeling.

That's all I have to say about that.

Wow. Uh, greatest one-album wonder band ever. Um, up there. Yeah. And it was probably this release, which was the title album Boston.

Also had, uh, Smoking and what's the other one?

Let's just look. Well, I'm taking my time. Yeah, there was there was a ton on there, wasn't there? Yeah.

Keep speaking.

My My phone is not happy for some reason. The old technical gremlins. Yeah. More Than a Feeling, Peace of Mind, which you would know if it played that. Foreplay, A Long Time.

Yeah. It's been such a long time. Rock and Roll Band, Smokin', Hitch a Ride, Something About You. It was basically every song, I guess. Yeah.

Like 9. Well, you know, like 90% of their hits were from that one, their big hits. Yeah. Then they, they kind of came back a little bit in the early '80s to mid-'80s, but not, not to the fanfare of that particular album, I guess. Right Place, Right Time.

Yeah. Well, FM radio rock. Yeah. Very, uh, yeah, very easy to play on the radio. Catchy.

Yeah, I was— it was a little bit before my time. I, I remember having some older cousins that were not such big fans of Boston for whatever reason. They were more of the Led Zeppelin. Yeah, you know, I could see that. It wasn't hard enough, I don't think.

Yeah, if you were more into the, uh, like a Led Zeppelin or a Sabbath Boston would probably be a little lame to you. Yeah, for sure. But it's good listening now. Yeah, it's held up well. I think so.

Uh, yes, so news on the Rush concert front, uh, we will be attending the concert in 2026. Yeah, um, that will be something quite special because I don't really see them going out and doing this much more than maybe one time. Yeah, probably. It's hard to say, you know. They— it's been 10 years since they've toured at all, and of course that was with Neil, who since passed away.

But, uh, yeah, I, I think that was one of the reasons why, um, you know, to, to give, I guess, a little bit of a story here. I sat in the presale queue, 2 tabs open for both Cleveland dates, um, and I was, let's just say, not in the front of that line because by the time I got in, the only tickets that were left were, uh, like $300+ bucks. And, um, you click on them and they go, oh, someone bought them. So the demand was that high, at least on the presale. But, uh, the resale market is a thing, and that's why I, I was a little dejected and was like, uh, maybe I'll just try the general sale.

And I was like, you know what, there's probably people who were early enough to get like the 150, which is the cheapest, but are now reselling it for more. But that's still the cheapest you're going to find. So I was like, uh, I went on, saw those seats. Thank you. And see you later.

I think I wholeheartedly believe that there is, there's a faction of people who have the technical savvy, whether it be using some sort of programming or algorithm or bots, that this is how they make their living. They go in, they, they somehow have a way of getting to the front of the line or, or whatever. They, they know they're going to put basket seats in the basket because they're going to turn around and, and go to StubHub or something. And good, I guess good for them, except it makes it hard for the common person to go see a band anymore. Yeah.

And that's, it has me a little dejected just about the music scene in general. And Not to, uh, I guess, uh, stand on a soapbox, but if you have the opportunity to and are into that kind of music, it's, it's actually very beneficial to like indie acts, sort of, uh, alternative music, because you can go see your favorite bands for $25. As opposed to, um, you know, hundreds of dollars. And I found that really beneficial. And even if, you know, just to see live music in general.

Yeah, there's, there's a lot of that out there. Um, what tends to happen is, like the Black Keys, you could see in Akron back in the late '90s, you know, for probably $5. Um, but yeah, so that's— you have a— that's— you're at that stage in your life where those types of concerts are appealing, um, and that the music is sort of what you're interested in. But yeah, so go see— go see all the back bar bands you can. Yeah, while you can, because it's at some point 15 or 20 years from now, you might be paying similar prices to see those bands.

Yeah, it's, um, it's happening with one of my favorite bands, Geese, right now. They released a new album. Sadly, their tour isn't coming to Ohio, otherwise I would go. But, um, huge fanfare, um, people, you know, of all ages suddenly talking about them. And, um, you know, people dying for tickets.

Well, I saw them last year in Columbus at A&R Music Bar for $17. Yeah. And there were 200 people there, right? Now everyone's like, oh my God, I can't believe you got Geese tickets, this and that. So, well, those are things that you'll remember.

Yeah. But to your point, you know, a lot of bands start they start out like that. Like, you know, you just mentioned the Black Keys. The Black Keys do arenas now, so it's just, uh, the way the music goes. But with Rush, it's a legacy act and has been for, you know, decades at this point.

So I figured it was always going to be a hot ticket. Well, this is a long— this is a long-standing conversation, and a lot of bands are really pissed about the way this goes down because they have a They have a range of expense for their seats. And sometimes it's agreed upon and sometimes it's not agreed upon, but clearly Rush does not want their tickets to sell for $800 apiece. Yeah. You know, I'm sure that's not because they're not there.

Their take is the same whether somebody resells it for a huge profit or not. Um, it's a shame. It's just the techno— the technological world that we live in. It will never go back to this, but there was some parity when you stood in line for tickets and the tickets were what the tickets were. The person in the, in the, uh, whatever you call it, in the booth, because you literally went and stood in line at Ticketmaster.

The ticket was whatever it was, and if they were gone, they were gone. Yeah. Now there was probably some manual reselling of tickets, i.e., scalpers, but the e-commerce has just made it too easy. Yeah, it's basically made scalping legal. Um, Ticketmaster is the worst of those culprits.

Many artists have spoken out against Ticketmaster. Uh, because they use dynamic pricing. So when they realize there's a ton of demand, they jack up the price. The, the, the only shame of it is, is that the common man, and that means people of, of different, you know, levels of middle means to upper means, still can't go see a show. Yeah.

Or don't, I don't care to go. I don't, you know, when you told me what it might be for us to go see them, I was like, well, I have a, I have a jump-off point where I don't, I don't give a shit, you know, because it's just too much money. Um, but fortunately we were able to get a couple of seats for that show and I hope it'll be a good one. I, I, Obviously it's always— it would— it's always great to be as close as possible, but even in— at the Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse, you're not so far away that you can't tell what's going on. No.

And my, my goal was always just to be in the building. Yeah. And say that I went and saw Rush, you know. Yeah. Now I actually did see The Who in 1989 at Municipal Stadium, and we were so far up that you could not see what was going on.

Well, that place was cavernous. 80— 75 or 80,000 people, and not at all geared towards concerts. No, I remember being able to make out some of the figures on the stage, basically. But as you said, we were there. Yeah.

And, uh, that's the most important thing. So yes, music sounds the same regardless. Yeah. Yes, another, uh, music soliloquy to start us off, but, uh, important, important aspect of this show, especially in the, uh, not dead periods, but this is a, a bit of a slow week news-wise, so it's fine to fill a little time. But, uh, I wanna if you'll, uh, indulge me here, start with, uh, the U.S. Men's National Team.

Um, we are in— well, now we're at the tail end of the international break, the October window. Um, only one more of those left until 2026 in November. And then of course, you know, I'm gonna keep teasing it, 2026 is Potentially the biggest year in this podcast's still young history with the, uh, home World Cup. So at least in the standings, I'm looking at the— I'm looking at the chart here, Group C, and it says Copa America. Is that— is that what we're looking at here?

Uh, those are probably old from last year. The Copa America tournament. These are a series of friendlies, so there's no standings involved. It's funny that they have that right next to yesterday's score. Yeah, I don't know why.

That— well, that's probably— no, because the Gold Cup. I was going to say maybe that was the last tournament we played in, but it could have been. This is just that in the Gold Cup. So now this is just a bouillabaisse of U.S. men's information, it looks like. Yeah, so maybe to give more context about what hell is going on with the U.S. men's national team for those who aren't really that plugged in.

When you host a World Cup, you do not have to go through the grueling qualifying phase, which trust me is the worst thing in the world. And if, if we're still doing this show in, um, '28 and '29 Uh, you'll have the pleasure of experiencing a CONCACAF World Cup qualification campaign because you might have noticed by now that the US play a lot of their games at home in front of, you know, 10,000-15,000 fans who, um, sometimes are majority US crowds. It depends on the opponent, but last night was a pretty solid crowd. Um, but a qualification campaign, you have to go, you play home and away against, against each team. So we're talking about a Tuesday night in El Salvador or Jamaica or Mexico, and all of a sudden these games get so much more intense and hard to win.

Um, The, the campaign to get to 2022 was so grueling, so tiring emotionally as a fan, um, just because so much odd shit happens in those games. So it's kind of a— it's an immense privilege to not have to do that. I guess that's what makes soccer that much different. Than any other major sport that we watch here. And I get a lot of this, I can't watch it, it's at least it's better than watching soccer.

Um, and I, I had to defend myself at one of our meetings in Detroit last week, um, because I was getting a lot of that feedback from people. We were talking about obviously the World Series race. And I don't talk football much, but there was football talk in the room and someone brought up, at least it's not like watching soccer. And I used to be the same way. So I, I found it necessary to interject.

Um, we've all had matches that we watch where it's like, oh, I, I get on my phone or play a puzzle game or something. But last night was a great example of a very endearing match. I think even though it was a friendly game, I enjoy this particular style of football. I don't really care for the officiating that much, but at the same time, it's nice to watch a let them play type of match. It really injected a lot of energy into the end of the first half of this particular match where you just felt like something's going to happen as soon as they come back out on the field.

So the United States last night, as we record, played Australia in a friendly in Colorado. Australia is not an opponent we see hardly ever. Hardly ever. So I was— no, but it— I mean, they haven't lost. No.

Um, it was 7— they won 7 in a row or something. So Australia, yeah, their ticket's booked for 2026. So, uh, quality opposition. The match before, the US played Ecuador, who I believe are booked for '26 as well, and drew. So overall, you know, the score here, 2-1 United States, but Overall, I think this window instilled maybe just a little smidgen of, of hope and positivity.

Look, after the, the summer was pretty rough, uh, losing that Gold Cup final, before then doing really bad in the Nations League, and I, you know, you just go through phases with this team where it's just, it's really challenging to try and just be hog wild about them. They really test your patience. I think last night was an example of the way we would like to see them play. Absolutely.

Just dynamically. First of all, both teams were— this was a very physical, fast game. And those are my favorite ones to watch. Not a fan of pinball or ticky-tack football, but this was a great one from the jump. There was never a time where there wasn't at least, you know, something, something going on.

Um, there's a lot of big names on this team from, you know, at least from, in my opinion, uh, And they, the last match or 2 that we watched a while back, it didn't feel like that. It's because it wasn't. I mean, this camp actually had a close to full strength squad. Yeah, which is, it's like night and day. Yeah.

You know, which is what people don't quite understand that, you know, you're not going to, you may not see the same team or roster on the US men's team throughout these different windows or matches or whatever. Um, so yeah, there's going to be some stinkers, but last night was not one of those. Yeah. Um, obviously Haji Wright was the, the goal scorer. He scored both goals.

Yes. Um, I don't— if you want to get dive into each one, you can, but I mean, these were, these were Well, well fought, well placed. I mean, the defender was, or the keeper was pretty decent for the other team. So there was a lot of shots on, there was quite a few shots on goal. But yeah, so walk me through the first goal real quick.

I don't remember if that was a set piece or if it, I think it was just a, it was an open play, a nice, Let me, let me backtrack here. Um, I have to eat some crow, uh, because I was talking with my friends who are, you know, pretty plugged into the national team. There's a man on this roster named Christian Roldán who, uh, I've had a troubled past with. He really has been kind of out of the national team for 4 or 5 years until Real quick, it's funny, I'm looking at a roster that looks like a high school yearbook, so there's pictures. His picture's not on there.

Yeah, that makes— I mean, he hasn't put— so he, up until Maurizio Pochettino came to town, was like completely out of the picture. And I have memories dating back to like 2019 of watching him and just being sickened by how fucking terrible he was. I hated Christian Roldán. I hated him. I thought he sucked, and he did.

He actually did. He was terrible. And, um, Mauricio Pochettino comes in and he starts calling in all these guys, many of whom are kind of these MLS lifers, which, you know, guys that were maybe college players and then came into MLS and were good there, but never really made the jump to like Europe, you know, where the elite talent is. Um, Pochettino comes in, plays him in a different position, and all of a sudden he looks like Jesus Christ reborn. 2 assists in this one.

Yeah. They have him listed as a midfielder here. Is that where they had him last night? Yeah, he was deployed the midfield, central midfield, in an attacking role. See, he a lot of times used to play on the wing, um, back in the day, and he was just a terrible winger.

So I guess kudos to Poch for seeing something in him. And, you know, if, if we can sustain this type of form from Roldán, he could be a pretty big asset. How many matches has he coached? Pochettino. Yeah.

For the US, I, I'm at, yeah, for this team. Has he been around a while? Only since what? October of last year. Because remember, Berhalter got fired after Copa America.

So not too many games. I mean, if this is a management style that suits this club, which it feels like they They want to play for him, which I don't know if we had that under the last regime. It's hard to say when, when you've got all these guys who play for other teams in other leagues and they have to come together for a campaign. It would, it would be really hard to have chemistry, but I felt like there was good flow last night. Whatever reason.

Yeah, and, and going back to your point of like wanting to play for the manager, every national team manager kind of— they usually switch up the pool of players. They have their guys that they call in a lot. Berhalter had guys like that, um, and Potch definitely has guys like that. Um, Freeman, Alex Freeman gets called up all the time. I don't know how much he truly deserves that.

Max Arfsten Um, seems to be a Poch guy, and Christian Roldán. Um, so the lineup, you know, is always sort of shifting, especially when we're only playing friendlies up until the World Cup. I, I do think that is right now a great opportunity to get new faces in, get different looks from people, because ultimately what these are for the— for our pool of players is like a tryout for the World Cup roster. Because, you know, similar to how a baseball team— you know how in each playoff round you have to set your roster? You do the same thing for the World Cup, uh, 26-man squad.

So some of these guys are— they're quite literally fighting to be on that World Cup squad. And anything you do in these games is put under the microscope.

Yeah. So you'll have to, you'll have to walk through that first goal. I don't, I know, like you said, it was a direct play. It wasn't a set piece or anything. It was, it was fairly like a strike that missed and then it bounced back really quickly.

And I think then it got bombed back in again. Yeah, I remember the— I guess that my 2 takeaways are that, you know, I, I don't have like a lot to say about breaking down each little minutia of the goals, but yeah, what, what I will say about both of them is the US have lacked a striker that can just— is clinical, can just put away chances without really hesitation. For years at this point. And Haji Wright really seems like right now he's the guy that he gets an opportunity, he puts it away. If he's inside the 6-yard box, there's a pretty good chance that, you know, he's going to score.

Yeah. And he's, quite frankly, he's playing some of the best soccer he's ever played club level for Coventry. In the second tier of England. 9 goals and an assist in 11 matches for him so far this year. Um, I'm always— seems like I'm waking up every Sunday morning to a highlight on Instagram of Haji Wright scoring for Coventry.

Um, so he seems to have really found his spot there and they're doing well. And, uh, I just saw a quote today that You know, he made it seem pretty simple. He just said, I'm just trying to take the form I have with Coventry and apply it to the national team. And seems like it's working well for him.

Yeah. Well, I mean, when you, if you beat a team that's won 7 in a row, then you're doing something right. And not to say that Australia didn't look good. They did. They looked, Yeah, they had flashes of good moments for sure.

They did. There's a few real fucking assholes on that team though. So what the— I should have pulled up the roster because I couldn't call them out right away. But there was a couple of guys. Jason Giria had that yellow card challenge in the first half.

Yeah, there was. Let me, let me look here. You might know Martin Boyle from Hibs. Bagsman for Hibernian. He's, uh, a staple of the Australian national team.

Um, but generally this is a lineup I'm not super familiar with. Obviously I'm not an Australian soccer savant by any means, but, um, a few guys that I recognize, and they are, they are missing a couple important players for them, but Australia is a team that the US need to model their game after a little bit, I think, because Australia very often make the World Cup and then they are a super hard team to beat. They, they very often punch well above their weight in the World Cup. Last year or not last year, last tournament in 2022. They were in a tough group, made it out of the group, and then in the round of 16 were slated against, you know, the eventual champions Argentina.

And they took Argentina as far as any team in that tournament really did up until the final, in my opinion, um, with a squad of guys that maybe only half of them, or not even half of them, are, you know, even close to household names. So yeah, I think the US can, can take a page out of their book in terms of being really hard to beat, being scrappy, um, maybe throwing in a challenge here and there. Um, I, I wouldn't mind that. Yeah, which is fine. It just, um And I don't see him on the roster, so I don't know if he's changed his face or what, but, um, the guy was just— I mean, he was challenging and tackling pretty hard.

Yeah, there were some big challenges for a friendly. I think the US took offense to that a little bit. Pulisic went off injured, but I'm sure it wasn't that serious. Probably more of an abundance of caution thing, right? I mean, if they're out there, you know, and that, that particular contact was not what they made it out to be.

No. I mean, there was some contact with the, um, on the ankle, but it wasn't anything. The replay, it was just a brush basically, but I don't blame them. Don't, you know, let's, we were in a position in this match where just get him off. Yeah, you know, I would like to see him wrapped in bubble wrap for the rest of the club campaign, which he's started terrifically with Milan, um, this year.

So I think, you know, I'm, I'm not where I was a month ago anymore. Take some deep breaths. I mean, we see some good performances out of the US, some players that have stepped up. Um, and you know, you, you start to get a little bit of, uh, hope that maybe we can actually do something in this tournament. Uh, remains to be seen, of course, but, um, I'm hoping, I'm hoping.

Of course, it's an expanded field, 48 teams, and, um, some of the teams that are making it are not at all going to be, uh, super not, not competitive. Every team's going to be decently competitive, but there are much more teams that are not ever going to win a World Cup or even come close to it that are making the tournament this time around due to the expanded field. So I think the US very likely could get a pretty easy group, and then you go from there. So Yeah, so I don't know anything about the next 2 matches, but they're gonna play fairly close together. The 15th of November they play Paraguay, and then Uruguay just 3 days later.

Are those considered friendlies? So like I said, we only have friendlies until the, the World Cup just because there's no tournaments going on. Uh, maybe there's some Nations League next spring, but it's largely friendlies. Paraguay is not very good, um, but you know, it's South American competition, so they'll at least be somewhat tough. Uh, Uruguay is very good.

That'll be— assuming it's full strength lineups— should be a good test. So we'll find out in a month. Yeah. All right. Okay.

Well, there you go. United States. Fun, fun match to watch though last night. Yeah, I made it to the 80th. It's surprisingly not a horrific match to watch.

Yeah. Um, there we go. So let's move on into the world of motorsports. Um, I would like to start with, um, news out of the IndyCar paddock. Uh, this offseason has been, uh, fairly decent so far in terms of, uh, a lot of times with IndyCar when the season ends you don't hear shit for like 2, 3 months.

Last year maybe not so much because the Fox thing, but, um, it— there has been a decent amount of, uh, you know, happenings starting off, uh, yesterday I believe Uh, Rinus VK signs with Junkos Hollinger Racing for the upcoming 2026 campaign. Um, remember he was with Dale Coyne last year, had a couple of very solid finishes with Dale Coyne, um, with a backmarker team. I was kind of hoping that a team not also a backmarker would sign him, but I think he has shown that he can sort of punch above his weight in terms of hardware. Yeah, I mean, I don't know much about Juncos, but Rinus is a good driver. And if the, if the team can put a good car together for him, then he'll have a decent result.

Um, this, uh, Schumacher test, uh, I've only seen headlines for it, so I, I don't know what the, the real possibility of Mick Schumacher ending up in the IndyCar series would be. I, I just watched a video today, um, of an IndyCar reporter kind of talking about it. David Land is his name. Reporter, I kind of use that term lightly, but he does have media credentials. Um, and he seems like— and I guess people in the paddock think that as long as he can secure funding, um, he should be in.

And also Technically, Ray Hall, all 3 seats are full next year, uh, and the seat that he would be getting would be, um, Devlin DeFrancesco's. But it sounds like the Ray Halls would be more than fine with, uh, well, running up DeFrancesco's contract. Let's, let's not forget that with a name like that comes tremendous amounts of sponsorship money potentially. Yeah, I don't think that would ever really be a problem for him. So yeah, I mean, I, I don't know.

I guess for the, for the good of the team, you shuttle, shuttle one guy for a guy who you think is going to bring you money and bring, and bring results. Yeah, DeFrancesco sucks. For one thing, he's terrible. And secondly, clearly Mick Schumacher is a talented driver. Uh, as he, you know, former F1 driver, World Endurance Championship driver, the, the ceiling for Mick Schumacher is a lot higher than Devlin Di Francesco.

So I think that would— Ray Hall would have no problem, uh, shuttling Di Francesco in his contract, however you do that. But yeah, well, either have to pay him out Or which they would probably do. But, um, I don't know if this, and I'll have to watch and see if there's a lot more offseason talk about this, because I think it's just this bit of a splashy headline here. I'll read this article at some point later. Kurt Cavin, by the way, is a really, he's the guy that he's like the guy.

He writes for the Indy Star. So if you see his masthead over an article, it's worth a read. He's been around forever.

So worthy of paying attention to for sure. But yeah, I would, I'd be interested to see, you know, where this goes. If he ends up in a seat next year, that'd be, that would be pretty cool.

I can't say for sure, but I— maybe a car like this, it's a little bit more analog, would— is gonna suit him better. Um, yeah, well, he said to the media that his dream is still single-seater racing. Obviously last year he spent time in sports cars, which, um, you know, WEC is a huge and incredibly popular series. Um, especially across the pond where, uh, here IMSA's our comparison. Um, but he said, you know, my dream was always single-seater racing and I still want to pursue that, and IndyCar is basically my best opportunity to do it.

Yeah, I didn't realize, uh, he is— if Apparently if you win a championship in Formula 2, you can't go back. That's what this article says. That would make sense because, yeah, Theo Pourchaire never went back and he got screwed over. Yeah. So yeah, I mean, okay, I'm, I'm down for see what he can do.

If he gets a seat next year, it'll, it'll definitely bring a lot of interest. Well, that's the thing. I think if you're IndyCar, you're trying to make this happen no Right. And I think that speaks to your point about how we, we're seeing a little bit more news and information, because I really do believe that the series is getting that popular, because they don't write articles for people who don't, who don't really care. I don't think.

We'll see. We'll see. Uh, TV numbers have to go up a lot more before I'd sit here and say, wow, IndyCar has gotten really popular. But, um, I think global interest, um, it helps when you have Schumachers, awards, those types that bring foreign eyes onto the series. And I think that's really important.

We've seen other F1 drivers try to come here though, and maybe albeit for just one race and not have much success. Yeah, it's been a little hit or miss throughout the history of, of IndyCar with F1 guys. Obviously, like, um, like a Juan Pablo Montoya type or a, um, Nigel Mansell.

Bourdais, Sébastien Bourdais, he was damn good in IndyCar and started in F1 first. So there's, there is examples of F1 guys coming to IndyCar and doing really well. But, um, I think, uh, Alonso— yeah, he's sort of— but '17, '19, and 2020, those are 500 attempts, and you know how fickle this is. That's correct. Yeah, that's correct.

In terms of like guys that have, you know, ran full seasons, he competed though 3 times. He qualified and made it to the race, which But still, well, he got bumped one— was it '19 he got bumped? He got bumped 2019. Yeah, I don't, I don't see, can't see that far down. But, but yeah, like guys that have ran full seasons of both, usually F1 first, there's been a decent, half decent track record of them being pretty solid in IndyCar.

Mick Schumacher, you know, obviously didn't light it up in F1 and would not be joining like a, uh, on paper a championship contending team in RLL. But IndyCar is one of those series where if you put together one good day, you can be in with a shout to win. So I, I think he would be very competitive in F1 or in IndyCar. The thing, you know, the caveat is how would he do on ovals? I don't know how much experience, if any at all, he, yeah, has with ovals.

So indeed, I think, uh, Michael Schumacher was famously dismissive of IndyCar back in the day, saying, um, him and Ralf Schumacher, uh, talked about how dangerous oval racing was and couldn't understand why drivers would put their bodies on the line for oval racing.

Well, I don't know what to say about that. Is it dangerous because it's just outright speed? Yeah. And close contact and people die. Yeah.

Well, not in a long time, but people die. Sure. People die in every series. People died in F1 too. So, um, The romantic in me would think it'd be pretty cool if, uh, Mick won at Indy, whether it be road course or oval.

And, uh, you know, his dad won at Indy in F1 like 4 times when that was a thing, so that would be kind of cool. Yeah, indeed. So always keeping an eye on the offseason for IndyCar, um, and we'll continue to do so.

I don't want to talk about NASCAR, uh, number one because I haven't watched anything for a while and I don't— I'm not 100% sure of what's happening there, but it's the round of 8. I think Denny Hamlin won last weekend. I didn't— I haven't watched last couple. So what we might do is, in the interest of content, if we need to talk about something, uh, these last few races, which we're down to now, uh, yeah, I think there's 3 left. Yeah.

So if anything interesting happens, we'll dip into that. Uh, I just read an article yesterday saying that NASCAR is looking again about reconfiguring how they do things. Oh, the playoff structure? Yes. Yeah, I, I hadn't seen, um, I had just seen my friend Ben talk, who's— Ben is very tapped into NASCAR, um, how they might, yeah, reconfigure that system.

But I didn't see any hard or even speculation about, um what, what that would look like. Yeah, I will say I think it's goofy with their current system, but it is. I don't know if NASCAR anymore lends itself to just straight points either because the races are so unpredictable. I mean, you can guess, oh, okay, Hendrick and Penske are gonna do pretty damn good, but generally speaking Unless it's a road course with SVG, you can't just go, uh, William Byron's gonna win today like you could with F1 and even IndyCar a little bit. Um, I just don't know if that lends itself to like, we only do points.

I think NASCAR needs to have some sort of— the Chase is what it used to be, and then it was the playoffs. Like, I think they need something like that to keep interest throughout the year. But I don't know, the current system is just strange. Yeah, and I, I don't know either if, if they can't go back to the way it used to be. Obviously, um, so many things have changed in that series, but that's a podcast for another day if we ever wanted to do like a retrospective on NASCAR because it's really only 75 years old or something.

It's pretty fairly new as— yeah, as far as motor racing goes. Yeah, well, F1 is too, I guess, but, um, yeah, NASCAR doesn't have the history of like an IndyCar. Yeah, by any means. Alrighty, so that brings us to F1, which, uh, we are coming up very Quickly here on the race in, uh, the US here at COTA Circuit of the Americas, which is in Texas.

Um, and this is second to Miami. Miami's happened already. Miami, yeah, it's in May. And then, um, then we have Vegas, which Continues to be one, one of my favorite venues. Just something about it.

Um, it's, it's, it's a pomp and circumstance. Yeah, and it's, it's produced some decent races. So, um, I don't know, do we need to revisit anything? Do we, do we know what's happening here with, uh— well, we, we spent a lot of time last week talking about— I'm sure we did— what's happening, so I don't feel the need to rehash. We'll, uh, we'll talk about it after.

Uh, practice 1 on this, the 17th of October, which is Thursday, Friday, right?

Oh, this is a sprint race too. So we have a sprint qualifying, then the sprint on Saturday. Qualifying on Saturday, the race on Sunday. Uh, Circuit is 5.5 kilometers. They have only been racing there since 2012.

Leclerc has the fastest lap time in 2019.

Looking at the overview, it is pretty interesting layout with this particular track. This is fairly technical. Yep, big elevation right away, very, uh, tight Turn 1. There's, uh, the esses, which are quite famous there. Uh, fairly large straight as well.

It's, it's, uh, it's long and kind of sweeping, and then it does have some, some sharp turns.

Yeah, always a good time. Um, yeah, I guess if we don't need to talk about where everyone's at until after this race, um, we'll just tune in this weekend.

This one is— oh, I'd love to watch this one live. It's at 3 o'clock in the afternoon, so, you know, marathon day. So never mind, I, I forgot about that until, uh, like today. I was just thinking about that. I was like, uh, I'm not gonna— so this will likely be a Monday or possibly Tuesday.

Probably Monday. I don't like to wait too long. No, I don't either, because I, I'm usually pretty good at staying uh, off the radar with this stuff. So yeah, Monday is usually the opportune time to tune in. So well, realistically, if I wasn't doing this marathon, I'd just watch it live.

Um, I like to watch the races live because watching them record— well, and I never avoid spoilers just because that's annoying, like every time like you open Instagram or something, you're like, oh God, I hope I don't see that. Like, I just, I gave up on that a long time ago. Yeah, it's easier for me because I just don't have to look at it. Yeah. Um, but yeah, so we'll check this one out, uh, day after probably, and then, uh, yeah, we'll, we'll talk about it on the next podcast.

6 races to go. We'll Will anyone usurp Oscar Piastri? What will happen? We know we only have one championship to watch now. Constructors is over and done with.

That was over and done with in May. It would make it interesting to see if Red Bull, if Max can pull within a slim margin and then we have a couple races at the end where it's do or die for. 3 are in the— that would be awesome. Yeah, that would be. Um, it just means you have to watch Max win more races, which isn't really— not that I don't really— I don't have this like cartoonish dislike that some people have of him.

I just, you know, I don't know. What I've learned is, especially since the insurgence or the, the uprising of McLaren, is even though, that those guys are that talented and they have that good a program. He just finds a way to get through everything, even if they don't have the best car, the best package. And I don't know how much of that might be a little bit of bullshit. I think he's a good bullshitter.

Like, he, he'll throw shit out there that makes you feel like he doesn't really have the best this or that, you know, but maybe why would I just, why would he suddenly get so much worse if it wasn't the car? Yeah, that's true. It's true.

I just think, I think he's probably going to go down as at least in a series of years. I won't say in the modern F1 era. But he's definitely up there and one of the greatest drivers of all time. When he's done, it'll— he'll be on the Mount Rushmore of F1. Yeah, undoubtedly.

I don't disagree. Um, and I've learned, I've learned to understand and accept his mannerism. Yeah. You know, I mean, I, I almost find it sometimes I find it humorous You know, because he's just that fucking good. Oh, and he doesn't really— he doesn't, he doesn't, um, censor anything really.

If the car sucks, he'll say it sucks, that type of thing. He's not like super media-trained diplomat type. He'll just kind of say what's on his mind, which is refreshing. We weren't involved in the series at all when apparently in, you know, having gone back and watched videos and stuff when he was at his worst in terms of being a dickhead, crashing all the time, complaining all the time. Um, you could ask Brett Hogel, is a good example of a guy who doesn't like him because of that Max, but now has come around on him because of his rather large character development throughout his career.

So he's compelling. So as, as a show that came in in 2022, how far back would we go back? 3 years and chronicle that? Or, I mean, well, his first race was what, 2015 or '16? Oh, so it'd be a lot longer than that, than 7 years.

Yeah. I mean, he started F1 when he was what, 16, I think, 17. So maybe in the offseason, uh, vis-à-vis the F1 TV app, maybe we'll just go back to his first season or 2 and just pick a race. I mean, we don't have to get stupid about it, but just to see, put a little perspective in, you know, what he's actually achieved and gained and learned would be fun. Yeah, at least for me.

No, for sure. I think that's, that's, that's big. We've, we've only been a thing as long as he's been kind of the, uh, machine, right? I'd like to see that pre-machine Max Verstappen. Mm-hmm.

You can, uh, watch races where, uh, Toro Rosso at the time were Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz. Uh, which I— hell of a driver lineup. Uh, who would have thought they both would have turned out so well? So I think that's all we got for this time around. Join us next time, we'll have more club football discussion.

We got a couple big matches this weekend and, uh, reaction from the United States Grand Prix. All right, so with that, um, we shall get going and we'll see you next time.

For executive producer Richard Tanaka, this has been Tackling the Chicane, copyright 2025, Studio 2520.