Russia national IndyCar team

The Russian national IndyCar team (Russian: Россия национальный Инди Автомобиль команда) represent Russia in the IndyCar Series competitions, the BATC World Tour and Celebrity Family Feud. Currently, the team is based in Indianapolis, and two cities in the European part of Russia, it's capital Moscow and Saint Petersburg. The Russian national IndyCar team is also based in the Asian part of the country.

Russia has had better success with Marco Andretti served as the driver with the team than 2014 and the IndyCar seasons between 1996 and 2005.

The team, with Aleshin, was considered to be a rookie in 2014 because of changing the driver; from Marco Andretti to Mikhail Aleshin. The team finished 2nd in the second race of the Houston doubleheader held on June 29 behind Simon Pagenaud, which was Aleshin's teammate during the 2014 season with Schmidt Peterson Motorsports; for the team's first podium since the 2013 season. The Russian national team was suspended from the last race at Auto Club Speedway that year due to the injuries to Mikhail Aleshin.

2016 has been a worse year for Russia, as qualifying with Marco Andretti is lacking the national team; and finishes outside the top 10 have been also lacking for the national team also.

2017 will start the new Golden Generation for the Russian national IndyCar team. The team will try to become a return to form season that happened in the 2013 IndyCar Series season, as the team now has new members with Generation 7 Legendary Lunala, Dark type Absol originally from the Italy national IndyCar team and new Russian captain; that of Luk thung singer Pee Saderd. Additionally, the team decided to own Monkan Kankoon's 7th album under GMM Grammy Gold; and also Takkatan Cholada's 9th album which also was released under GMM Grammy Gold.

The captain for the 2016 season was Galvantula; but for the 2017 IndyCar Series for Russia's national team captain was revealed to be Pee Saderd. The occasion where Saderd was chosen as the captain was similar to how the Buranovskiye Babushki grannies sang "Party For Everybody" in the Udmurt language. Arguably, Russia's 2017 team is considered to be the first BATC/IndyCar national team to not have an English language speaking captain.

Family Feud
The Russian national IndyCar team's players has shown recent success in Celebrity Family Feud tournaments after the 2015 show's comeback, as Galvantula made the semifinals in Bachelors vs. Bachelorettes and Verizon IndyCar Series Drivers vs. Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Models and the quarterfinals in Kellie Pickler vs. Lance Bass and Ernie Hudson vs. NeNe Leakes and Professional Boxers and Joely Fisher vs. Tony Hawk. 2017 captain Pee Saderd also brought Russia the success in these types of tournaments, making at least the quarterfinals two consecutive times as a Russian player; in Paula Deen vs. Carson Kressley and Rico Rodriguez vs. Jaleel White and the grand final in Tommy Davidson vs. Kristi Yamaguchi and Dave Foley vs. Jalen Rose. Russia's appearance in the men's singles final in Tommy Davidson vs. Kristi Yamaguchi and Dave Foley vs. Jalen Rose is one of the first for Russia at a Grand Slam level.

Russia's national IndyCar team in the 2017 season also set Ben and Toad's Contest records in Pee Saderd's 3rd and 4th round matches; for one of the longest tiebreakers in the show's history and the biggest age gap between players (Cameron Marshall - 8 August 2001 and the Russian - 19 October 1972). Also during Tommy Davidson vs. Kristi Yamaguchi and Dave Foley vs. Jalen Rose, four Russians (Marco Andretti, Galvantula, Hydreigon and Pee Saderd) all made the fourth round of the men's singles; but only Pee Saderd advanced further to the quarterfinals despite being multiple match points down to Hungarian Cameron Marshall; and also again match points down to defending finalist Emmitt Smith from Paula Deen vs. Carson Kressley and Rico Rodriguez vs. Jaleel White. The other three in the 2017 squad, Hydreigon, Galvantula and Marco Andretti, lost their fourth round matches to 2015 IndyCar championship contender Yoshi who finished 5th from the previous season, 2015 runner-up Dragonite, and 2016 IndyCar points leader Gilles Marini heading into Pocono, respectively. Eventually Russia had Saderd as a representative in the men's singles final but lost 6-0, 6-2 to Hélio Castroneves, the defending champion.

In the men's singles of Gus Kenworthy vs. Sheryl Underwood and David Chokachi vs. Alan Thicke, Galvantula and Hydreigon will be seeded 7th and 8th due to their fourth round result, and Pee Saderd will have a top 5 seeding for the country due to the quarterfinal or better result. Additionally, Saderd's seeding of top 5 is again a Luk thung record and a Khon Kaen Province record. Due to Salamence and Volcarona's quarterfinal exits, a Khon Kaen and Luk thung record will be set again when Saderd gets a top 3 seeding, after Castroneves. Again, all three Russians will get a bye through the second round, skipping the Gus Kenworthy vs. Sheryl Underwood game; along with the names of Volcarona, Salamence, Apolo Anton Ohno, Hélio Castroneves and Dragonite. Russia have a representative in the men's singles quarterfinals after Saderd ended the run of Larry Birkhead, 6-2, 6-1.

In the season 2 finale of the 2015 comeback, Garrett Morris vs. Alfonso Ribeiro and Todd Chrisley vs. Sara Evans, the other Russian players in the 2017 IndyCar Series season squad outside Russian captain Pee Saderd will earn wildcards into a men's singles or women's singles draw. It is due to the rules requiring that the 32 best 2017 IndyCar Series captains can be seeded.

In the 2017 season, Russia will have Andretti and Saderd as the men's singles seeds if the team is ranked high enough in the standings. Additionally, in 2017, the 2017 Russia national team captain will have to defend a lot of points from the August episodes in 2016.

Galvantula
Bio: a Bug/Electric type Pokemon; evolves from Joltik; speaks English, Russian and Thai
 * Kellie Pickler vs. Lance Bass and Ernie Hudson vs. NeNe Leakes: Quarterfinals, lost to Hélio Castroneves

Current members
This is the current Russian national IndyCar squad, as announced for the 2017 IndyCar Series season, on August 20, 2016. Also this squad for the 2017 IndyCar Series will also be used until Pee Saderd's 9th album gets released (likely before or during the 2017 IndyCar Series) and then the numbers switch.

🇷🇺 Russia's 2017 IndyCar team squad:

Music competitions/languages
Every song that the Russian IndyCar national team wrote used to be in English or Russian until Saderd joined the national team; but the Russian national team now requires Thai language lyrics. After the squad for the 2017 IndyCar season was announced, the Pokemon representing the Russian national team are learning Thai language.

On August 15, 2016, due to the Russian's early exit in Paula Deen vs. Carson Kressley and Rico Rodriguez vs. Jaleel White, Galvantula had decided to translate the last two Russian Eurovision songs before 2017 (A Million Voices) and (You Are the Only One) into the Thai language. With the translations very good, it will likely give the Russia national IndyCar team success in Luk thung music.

After Russia had two good Eurovision Song Contests in 2015 and 2016, Russia gave the national IndyCar team a try to represent in IndyVision Song Contest 2016, which takes place in October. Eventually Russia's representative was announced on August 17, 2016; which will be represented by Galvantula featuring Thai language from Luk thung artist Pee Saderd with the song "Lan seiyng" (meaning A Million Voices) in Thai language.

When the 2017 IndyCar Series schedule was released on August 25, 2016, Russia revealed that the flag bearer for the BATC Season 9 Opening Ceremony will be the 2017 team captain Pee Saderd; becoming the first non-English language speaker to carry a country's flag. Additionally, the team that weekend will swap into the 2017 squad. The song Russia will use for the ceremony will be in the Thai language. The 2017 Russian national IndyCar team captain Pee Saderd had many song choices to choose from, but they decided to choose a Tai Orathai song over Pee Saderd himself and Phai Pongsatorn. The Russian team will be the only team to have a song all ceremony to contain no English language lyrics.

Additionally, the Russia national IndyCar 2017 team is currently the first and the only team that dislikes Siriporn's Bow ruk see dum song, because it is not Siriporn in the GMM Grammy Gold era. This was said by 2017 IndyCar team captain Pee Saderd.

In August 2016, following the 2016 Firestone 600, the team announced that they will not use the English language songs for any BATC events during that time if James Hinchcliffe doesn't make the Dancing with the Stars season 23 cast. Since Hinchtown made the ''season 23 cast, Russia decided to put on both English and Thai language songs.

2016: Struggle
The Russian national team has had an awful 2016, having only two top ten finishes and other finishes outside the top 10. This will be Russia's worst IndyCar season since the 2014 IndyCar Series season, where the team drove for rookie Mikhail Aleshin.

It has had a lack of qualifying results during the 2016 IndyCar season, finishing outside the top 10; never qualifying for round 2 in road and streets courses. On August 25, 2016; after the reveal of the 2017 schedule, Russia decided to use their 2017 squad rather than their 2016 squad at Sonoma.


 * Family Feud articles about Russia at the Celebrity Family Feud tournaments
 * 1) 🇷🇺 Episode 1
 * 2) 🇷🇺 Episode 2
 * 3) 🇷🇺 Episode 3
 * 4) 🇷🇺 Episode 4
 * 5) 🇷🇺 Episode 5
 * 6) 🇷🇺 Episode 6
 * 7) 🇷🇺 August 7
 * 8) 🇷🇺 Episode 7
 * 9) 🇷🇺 Episode 8
 * 10) 🇷🇺 Episode 9
 * 11) 🇷🇺 Episode 10

2017-present: The beginning of Saderd and Lunala era
The captain for 2017 was either Galvantula or one of their members of their choice. A successful comeback in the 2016 BATC World Tour/Celebrity Family Feud combined tournaments put Pee Saderd in contention for the Russia captain of the 2017 IndyCar Series. On August 20, 2016; when the full squad was announced, Saderd was announced as Russia's 2017 series captain.

Russia have confirmed their 7 players before the second week of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. A full squad of players playing for the country was announced on August 20, 2016; with the last ones being DWTS professionals Demidova, Trebunskaya and Chigvintsev. After their Fictional BATC Family Feud victory over the Netherlands, Russia announced that it will field Pee Saderd from 2017 due to his good result in AFC vs. NFC starting in Paula Deen vs. Carson Kressley and Rico Rodriguez vs. Jaleel White.

At Watkins Glen in August, it was revealed that Russia will field Lunala from 2017. Russia will also field Absol, who is leaving the Italy national IndyCar team due to poor 2016 results from the team. 2016 player Yulia Lipnitskaya will swap lives with Absol starting from the 2017 season.

The Russian national IndyCar team's jerseys for the 2017 season were confirmed in the middle of August 2016. The #27 jersey for Russia will belong to Andretti, but the #9 belongs to Saderd as he has not recorded a 9th studio album before the Paula Deen vs. Carson Kressley and Rico Rodriguez vs. Jaleel White tournament. Galvantula will wear the #2 Russia jersey as confirmed.

Russia's first matches after 2016 Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma in the Saderd era are against the Thailand national IndyCar team.

The team will announce a switch of the team number for Demidova and Saderd after the latter's 9th album is released in time for the 2018 IndyCar Series season.

After the postponed Pocono race due to rain in 2016, the team also confirmed the languages they will speak in 2017: English, Russian and Thai. Additionally, Russia's 2017 team is the first IndyCar team to ever speak the Thai language.

Trivia

 * Russia are one of the first national IndyCar Series teams to have a guitarist playing for a team (Pee Saderd).
 * Russia is considered to be one of the best teams in Eastern Europe of IndyCar (along with Ukraine).