The Lucas Oil/Speedco Top Fuel dragster's team goal of a racking up a win and a securing a top-five points finish before the 2010 season ends looks much more likely to happen as the Full Throttle Drag Racing Series heads into this weekend's 26th annual Toyo Tires NHRA Nationals at Maple Grove Raceway.

Driver Shawn Langdon and his crew are coming off a season-best runner-up finish in Dallas where he knocked off some of the NHRA's toughest teams, including the front-running Al-Anabi Racing and moved into sixth in the points.

"We've got high expectations for this weekend," Langdon said. "Hopefully we can keep the momentum going. The top-five finish is really important, but we're only a round out of fourth. We found a few little problems in Dallas that will hopefully make the car run even better on Sundays."

Langdon sits 19 points behind fifth-place driver Doug Kalitta in the Full Throttle Series standings and 23 back of Brandon Bernstein for fourth.

"I'm doing my best to give my team the best opportunity to win," Langdon said. "Even though we're kind of far out for the championship, we've still got a chance to better ourselves, the team as a whole, and be better prepared for next year.

"Just because you aren’t in first place doesn't mean you have nothing to race for. I'm not going to give up until we're in the last round at Pomona."

Langdon said the semifinal performance at Indy and the final at Dallas have been a huge shot in the arm for a team that suffered one mishap after another during much of the summer.

"Dallas was one of the best races we've had as a team," Langdon said. "We've got high hopes and the car is running good. We're only a fraction of a second behind the top cars now. That gives us a good shot a winning by the end of the year and moving way up in the points."