It was a day Mark Martin undoubtedly had been dreaming about for his entire racing career. Finally, after so many heartbreaking disappointments, Roush Racing had won a Winston Cup championship.

It was happening at North Carolina Speedway, the track where in 1989 Martin had earned his first Winston Cup victory as a driver and Jack Roush’s first Cup victory as a car owner. What could be more fitting?

Yet something was out of kilter. Martin was there, all right, but somebody else was holding up the oversized trophy and accepting the congratulations.

Matt Kenseth was the star of this show. The 31-year-old driver who Martin had recruited and urged Roush to hire had wrapped up the 2003 title with a fourth-place finish in the Pop Secret 400.

Martin, meanwhile, had lost an engine after running only 239 laps. Despite the fact that Martin is listed as a co-owner of Kenseth’s team, nobody could have blamed him if he had gone on up the highway and left the celebrating to Kenseth, crew chief Robbie Reiser, Roush and the rest of the newly crowned championship team.

But that’s not Mark Martin. He changed into his street clothes and came over to Kenseth’s pit to stand and watch the final laps. He posed for pictures with Kenseth, Roush and the trophy and came to the press box for the interviews that followed.

Through it all, Martin must have felt like an actor watching someone win an Academy Award for a film about that actor playing his most memorable role.

Or something like that.

“I don’t know how I feel,” said Martin, who finished just 38 points behind Tony Stewart in last year’s final standings, the fourth time in his career he’s been the runner-up in the title chase without winning.

“I don’t really have a feeling because I don’t feel like I deserve to be a part of this thing,” Martin said. “The only reason I am a partner in the 17 car is because it was a gift to me from Jack Roush. Matt Kenseth and Robbie Reiser have earned this, and even though I cared an awful lot and tried to help as much as I could, my contribution to this team doesn’t add up to anything in my opinion.”

Kenseth begged to differ. The Wisconsin native met Martin at a drivers’ meeting before a Grand National series race in 1997, Kenseth’s second race as a driver for Reiser’s team. That turned out to be a momentous encounter for Kenseth’s career.

“I guess he heard of me from racing in Wisconsin,” Kenseth said. “We drove for the same owners at different times and at a lot of the same race tracks.

“He called me the next week and said he wanted to help me. He didn’t know how he was going to do it, but he wanted to get me hooked up with Jack.”

Even before Kenseth got his first Grand National series win at Rockingham in early 1998, he had a contract with Roush. He did some testing and accompanied Martin to tests where he didn’t even drive.

“I just tagged along a lot and tried to absorb and learn as much as I could,” Kenseth said.

Martin will turn 45 in January. Bobby Allison won a championship at that same age in 1983, becoming the oldest driver to win the title. He’s 17th in the current standings, though, which means he’ll most likely have his worst finish in the standings during his tenure with Roush — he was 15th in that first year in 1988.

“I am not bitter about the things I haven’t accomplished in my life or in my career,” Martin said.

There’s no bittersweet here.

“What I’ve done and accomplished, I’m proud of. What Matt has done and accomplished, I’m very proud of as well. But I’m not more proud of Matt today than I was a year ago. The actions make the man, the trophy doesn’t.”