IndyCar: 2019 DXC Technology 600 set to cap off grueling five-week stretch

This Saturday night’s DXC Technology 600 at Texas Motor Speedway is set to cap off a grueling five-week stretch for IndyCar that began back in May.

The last off weekend in IndyCar was the weekend of Saturday, May 4 and Sunday, May 5. Since then, it has been full-throttle through IndyCar’s most grueling five-week stretch of the season.

This grueling five-week stretch is scheduled to come to an end this Saturday night under the lights at Texas Motor Speedway with the season’s ninth race, the DXC Technology 600.

This 248-lap race around the four-turn, 1.44-mile (2.317-kilometer) high-banked Texas Motor Speedway oval in Fort Wort, Texas will also be the third race in the last two weekends, the fourth race in the last three weekends and the fifth race in the last five weekends.

IndyCar’s most intense stretch of the season began at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana, where three of these five weekends took place.

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It began on Saturday, May 11 with the IndyCar Grand Prix at the track’s 13-turn, 2.439-mile (3.925-kilometer) natural terrain road course, where Team Penske’s Simon Pagenaud earned his first victory of the season and the first of what would become his three weekend victories in May.

The following weekend, qualifications for the 103rd running of the Indianapolis 500 at the track’s four-turn, 2.5-mile (4.023-kilometer) oval took place. By the time qualifying for this race had concluded after a combined three sessions over the course of Saturday, May 18 and Sunday, May 19, Pagenaud had secured the pole position, the first of his Indy 500 career.

On Sunday, May 26, Pagenaud drove his #22 Chevrolet to victory lane in the “Greatest Spectacle in Racing” for the first time in his career, capping off a dominant month of May. Not since Helio Castroneves won the 93rd running of the race back in 2009 had a driver won it after starting from the pole position.

Team Penske’s hot streak continued the following weekend with the first of two races of the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix at the Raceway on Belle Isle. Josef Newgarden won the first of these two races around the 14-turn, 2.35-mile (3.782-kilometer) temporary street circuit on the streets of Belle Isle in Detroit, Michigan on Saturday, June 1.

However, Chip Ganassi Racing’s Scott Dixon became the first non-Team Penske driver to have notable success during this five-week stint when he won the second race of the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix at the track.

It almost goes without saying that these last several weeks have been exhausting for the IndyCar drivers, teams and fans alike, but the busiest five-week stretch of the season is scheduled to end this Saturday night, after which time the series will have what will be its first off weekend in six weeks.

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After the off weekend on Saturday, June 15 and Sunday, June 16, IndyCar is scheduled to return with the 10th race of the 17-race 2019 season at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin. This race, the REV Group Grand Prix at Road America, is scheduled to begin on Sunday, June 23 at 12:30 p.m. ET, and it is set to be broadcast live on NBC beginning at 12:00 p.m. ET.

But first, be sure to tune in to NBC Sports Network this Saturday, June 8 at 8:00 p.m. ET for the live broadcast of the DXC Technology 600 from Texas Motor Speedway,