Simon Pagenaud has this vision of being the first Frenchman to wear a cowboy hat and fire the six-shooters in Victory Circle at Texas Motor Speedway.

Pagenaud, who passed his oval rookie test at the 1.5-mile, high-banked oval April 5 in the Honda-powered No. 77 Schmidt Hamilton HP car, will make his second oval start (24th Indy car race) in the Firestone 550 on June 9 (8 p.m. ET on NBC Sports Network).

It might be a tall order to win the 228-lap race against an experienced field (21 of the 25 entrants have competed at the speedway, including six previous winners). Then again, not many would have considered the IZOD IndyCar Series rookie to be a title contender.

Pagenaud, coming off a third-place finish in the Chevrolet Detroit Belle Isle Grand Prix, is sixth in the standings with 171 points – six points out of third (Helio Castroneves). Three oval races the next three weekends will either break up the logjam or further tighten the championship race led by Will Power.

“Having such momentum is always very important in this stage of the season,” said Pagenaud, who has completed the most laps (609 of 610) of any driver this season. “It is great for the team, the crew, myself and everyone working on this HP program. We know the road courses are where we are strong, so scoring maximum points is important in our quest to a solid championship.”

Six of the 25 entrants, including the top four in the standings, have won at least once at Texas, which has produced 16 of the 23 races with a margin of victory of less than one second (eight have been decided by less than one-tenth of a second).

“Under the lights should be a lot of fun for the fans and quite tricky for us, but it should be good fun,” Pagenaud said. “I think the main thing is to take things one step at a time.  Obviously it's going to be a huge learning curve for me.  But in the meantime, it's still a race car and four corners.  I just have to understand what the car does, see what the others are doing in traffic, and try to understand the racetrack. 

“I've been watching the race from last year's, and it’s definitely a great show.  It's going to be a lot about pedaling the car this year, so it should be a little bit more rewarding for the drivers.”