We filed into the media center's press conference room like excited kids and left like mourners. That's the best way I can describe it. When one of the heroes of your sport -– let alone a childhood hero to most of us – says we might not be seeing him around next year, it's lump-in-the-throat time.

Don Prudhomme had talked openly earlier this year in an interview with me in National DRAGSTER about the possibility of fielding two Top Fuelers in 2010 –- it was originally the reason he hired Spencer Massey before Spencer was promoted into the first-string cockpit following Larry Dixon's departure for the Al-Anabi team –- so I think we all went in there expecting that announcement. I know I did.

So when Prudhomme lieutenant/team manager Skip Allum read from a prepared statement that "the Snake" was looking for either buyer/investor/sponsor for his team, jaws dropped in unison. [Full story] Prudhomme fielded questions afterward and, while the first brush of the news is not good, I'm going to take a glass-half-full look at this.

Prudhomme says he wanted to get the info out so that everyone will know, but I'm looking at his chance to let the media help him get the word out that he's in dire straits and looking for some help. I don't think he's over the sport or no longer believes in it, but he's realist. He knows that some of his owner peers put some of their personal money into their teams, and can't or won't do that.

He also won't run the team on less than an adequate budget, and after all that he has accomplished in his career -– including the two Top Fuel championships that Larry Dixon earned for him in 2002 and 2003 –- you can understand why he wouldn't want to have his final seasons be anything less than representative of his hall of fame career.

"The Snake" said that best: "I don’t want to be a leaker; I want to be able to come to a race and fire our best shot."

We wouldn’t have it any other way either, "Snake."