CONCORD, N.C. -- Mark Martin's impact on Roush Racing becomes obvious from the moment a visitor enters the team museum. There's his face, smiling down from photographs taken over the years. There's his Stroh's Light Thunderbird, which scored the organization's first Cup victory. There's his Winn-Dixie Busch car, which earned Roush's 200th NASCAR win.

There are firesuits and trophies and souvenirs, all testaments to the man whose crew-cut, steely-eyed visage defined Roush Racing for nearly two decades. All that's missing is Martin himself, who's home in Daytona Beach, Fla., preparing to run a partial schedule for real estate developer turned NASCAR team owner Bobby Ginn.

It seems strange, seeing Martin in dark green U.S. Army livery rather than his customary blue and white. It seems strange to see him driving a Chevrolet rather than a Ford. And it seems strange to attend a preseason press function at Roush Racing, and the for the team's oldest driver to be -- 36-year-old Greg Biffle?

Welcome to the new world at Roush Racing, where the senior drivers look like seniors in college, the roster is stacked with Busch and Craftsman Truck pilots who look like they're fresh out of high school, and Martin's trademark No. 6 car has been turned over to a kid barely old enough to drink. Things sure do seem different around here without Martin.

"It's definitely different without him here, but we knew sooner or later he was going to step back," Matt Kenseth said. "We thought it was going to be a lot sooner than what it actually was. He had the opportunity to do something he wanted to do on a part-time basis. So yeah, it's going to weird without him here, but we'll still see him around the garage all the time. And I think he's always going to feel like a teammate when we're not racing."

Much has changed at Roush Racing, but much hasn't. David Ragan, a 21-year-old Nextel Cup rookie, steps into the flagship car that Martin made famous. But Jack Roush still has three legitimate title threats in Kenseth, Biffle, and Carl Edwards. And the team owner still maintains a close relationship with his former driver, who was the first person to call him on New Year's Day.

"I couldn't be happier and more proud of the history we have with Mark," Roush said. "Mark made it clear to me and let me know what he wanted to do. He wanted to remain my friend, and he would take a phone call from me anytime, day or night, on any subject to suit my purpose. The first call I got on New Year's was from Mark Martin, wishing me and the team luck as we went forward."

Martin also mentioned one other thing: that he had talked briefly with Roush president Geoff Smith and VP Torry Galida about running a few Busch events for his old team, discussions that ultimately led to Martin signing on for races at Daytona next week and at Texas in April. Oh, and if Jack had any room for him in a Craftsman Truck, he'd love to drive that, too.

This from a driver whose definition of semi-retirement also includes at least 14 Nextel Cup starts for Ginn Racing, about five truck races for the Wood Brothers, and some other Busch events that have yet to be firmed up. Kenseth wouldn't be surprised to see his former teammate add even more.

"I know Mark pretty well. If he starts out the year strong, the first six or seven weeks, I wouldn't be surprised if he runs the whole season," Kenseth said.

"I think that if he's up there in points, and with the way they're doing the Chase and all that stuff, if his team is competitive, I wouldn't be shocked if he ended up running the whole season trying to run for the championship. That's just me, though. He hasn't said anything like that. I just know him pretty well, and when he sat there two or three years ago and said he was going to retire, I didn't buy that, either. So we'll see what happens."

Meanwhile at Roush, the wrenches and wheels keep turning. The burden of leadership now falls on Biffle, a presence at Roush for nearly a decade since making his Craftsman Truck debut for the team in 1998, and Kenseth, the former champion who came aboard two years later. There are plenty of young drivers at Roush, kids like Ragan, Danny O'Quinn, Erik Darnell and Peter Shepherd, who will need advice and support on and off the track.

"That day of needing that lead guy to kind of keep some organization and keep everybody together, that day is kind of gone, slipped," Biffle said. "We're in a different era now. But you know certainly, a lot of the young drivers we have look up to me and Matt together as somebody that they can lean on for some help."

Roush Racing's metro Charlotte headquarters probably isn't the best place to gauge how Martin's move will affect the team, simply because Martin wasn't around that much. He lived in Florida, and spent much of his free time there overseeing his son Matt's burgeoning racing career. In that respect, the departure three years ago of Jeff Burton -- as much a manager as he was a driver -- was a bigger loss.

"Greg and I have really been, I don't know if I want to use the word more involved, but with us living around here, we're at the shop a lot more than Mark. Mark living in Daytona, I don't know if Mark's been in the Busch shop in five years," Kenseth said.

"He'd come to the Cup shop every once in a while, fly up here. But with him living in Daytona, it wasn't like he was sitting in a meeting, being there and being the guy. It wasn't anything like that. And not that we're in all the meetings being the guy, either. Really the guy to lead all that stuff up was Jeff Burton. Jeff Burton was the guy who was more involved in the organization than any driver ever has been."

Roush says similar things, crediting Burton and Martin in almost the same breath for helping to build his race team into the juggernaut it is today. But Burton didn't drive the organization's iconic No. 6 car. Burton wasn't the first driver Roush hired when he started his team in 1988. Burton wasn't the sport's tragic hero, the perennially thwarted championship contender who gave Roush Racing its soul.

Martin was all those things. And to Roush, he remains a close personal friend and confidante.

"Certainly, the personal relationship has not diminished," the team owner said. "We're going to miss him, but he won't be far away. We can reach out and touch him when we need to."