Come hell or high water, Morgan Lucas intends to race his way to the winner's circle.

The driver of the Lucas Oil Stabilizer Top Fuel dragster team refuses to allow his failure to score a position in the Countdown to 1 to serve as an excuse for giving up on the season.

He's simply refusing to hang his head.

"We're taking the higher road and working on constantly improving," said Lucas. "We missed the Countdown, but we're not going to let it get us down. We have a strong team and now with Jimmy Walsh on board, I look forward to seeing things improve that much more." Come hell or high water, Morgan Lucas intends to race his way to the winner's circle.

The driver of the Lucas Oil Stabilizer Top Fuel dragster team refuses to allow his failure to score a position in the Countdown to 1 to serve as an excuse for giving up on the season.

He's simply refusing to hang his head.

"We're taking the higher road and working on constantly improving," said Lucas. "We missed the Countdown, but we're not going to let it get us down. We have a strong team and now with Jimmy Walsh on board, I look forward to seeing things improve that much more."

Walsh joined Morgan Lucas Racing in the days prior to the Lucas Oil Nationals in Brainerd, Minn., in mid-August. The team has shown flashes of brilliance; however, consistency is something the team is still struggling to obtain.

Clearly the Lucas team is preparing for 2009.

"Anytime you can find the consistency in the car, that's the first step in building a program," said Lucas. "Just give us some time to figure out what the car wants and then we'll have something to build on. It's that consistency that has evaded us. We are strong and can easily make great runs…just need to be more aggressive at the starting line."

This weekend will mark Lucas' fifth career race at the Texas Motorplex, where his best run was in 2004 when he reached the semi-finals.