Rick Santorum is running hard to win next week’s Iowa caucus, but the former Pennsylvania senator said Tuesday he wouldn’t continue running if he placed last.

“If I finish dead last behind the pack I’m going to pack up and go home,” Santorum said on the Iowa radio station WHO.

He was quick to add he wasn’t predicting failure.

“I don’t think that’s going to happen,” Santorum said. “I think we’re going to be very much in the mix and I feel very good that we’re going to surprise a lot of people in how we finish.”

Santorum, who has campaigned heavily in Iowa, is currently running at the back of the GOP race in Iowa. An American Research Group survey taken Dec. 19-22 shows him in last place among likely Republican caucus-goers at 4 percent.

Numbers like that don’t bother Santorum, however. The candidate said Tuesday it was an opportunity to finish on an upswing.

“My feeling is we have to exceed expectations and you know, the expectations right now for us are pretty low based on a lot of national polls,” Santorum said. “So I feel like we need to do well. We need to you know be right in the mix. Obviously we’d love to win it. Our intention is to win it and we’re doing everything we can to try to finish first and you know, somewhere in that middle of the pack and up we feel very, very good.”