Racing a fourth Team Penske IndyCar is a dream come true for Frenchman Simon Pagenaud, but a nightmare for the guys going up against the most talent-heavy lineup in series history.

Remember Team Australia in Champ Car? Remember its 2007 driver pairing? Yes? No? Well, eight years later, the band's back together and that same duo now represents 50 percent of perhaps the most formidable lineup ever assembled by a single IndyCar team.

The rookie in Team Australia that year was Simon Pagenaud, who's now preparing to become the fourth bullet in an outrageously talent-heavy Team Penske arsenal that already includes reigning champion (and his former Team Australia cohort) Will Power, Helio Castroneves and Juan Pablo Montoya.

Pagenaud has traveled a long way from Portiers, France, to Mooresville, N.C., both figuratively and literally. Champ Car's collapse at the end of 2007 diverted him into sports cars. That foray left him with a lot of experience and a pile of silverware, but it also brought him onto the periphery of the Penske radar through his successful stint with de Ferran Motorsports, co-owned by Penske alumni Gil de Ferran.

Still, it took a return to open-wheel racing and three seasons of giant-killing performances in IndyCar with Schmidt Peterson Motorsports to bring him to where he is today: settling into his new home in the Charlotte area.

"I'm adjusting to the new life in North Carolina," he says. "I got a house there to be closer to the team. There's just a lot of personal stuff to put in place when you move from one place to another. But it's good, really good. I'm excited for the season, and super motivated.

"Penske is the team that I always wanted to drive for, and now it feels like all the stars have aligned for me. I've dreamed of this opportunity ever since I was a kid, so it's really special. I get to drive for my dream team, I'm given everything that I need to win, so now the interesting part is how to make it count."

Pagenaud could hardly have made a stronger case for this opportunity. In his three years at Schmidt, he never finished lower than fifth in final points. Indeed, he went into last year's finale at Fontana as the only Honda driver still in the hunt, and the only driver mathematically capable of denying Penske the championship. The extent of Penske's faith in the 30-year-old is apparent in what the team has done to accommodate him: for the first time ever, it will run four full-time cars in 2015.

"We haven't worked with Simon for very long, but I compare his approach to the way that Gil de Ferran approached racing," says Penske Racing president Tim Cindric. "He's pretty matter-of-fact and it's very much down to the physics [of racing]. But he also understands how you have to be mentally and physically prepared as well.

"Simon has a complete understanding of the sport, and he's somebody who can communicate what he needs to be successful. He has a unique talent in terms of doing that, and at the same time he's French, so I guess that was a surprise to us; that he's able to convey things in English in a way in which everybody can understand them, and in a really matter-of-fact way rather than an emotional way."