DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- One day before the Daytona 500, Matt Kenseth confided in his wife Katie that he was tired of no longer being a serious title contender on NASCAR's premier series, and harbored no illusions about his chances in the sport's biggest race. On the morning of the Daytona 500, Jack Roush woke up feeling pessimistic as always, those two decades of close calls and near misses on the big race track engrained in his bones.

“

I'll be black and blue for the next couple of days just pinching myself to make sure I'm not dreaming.

”

JACK ROUSH

So how strange it was to see Kenseth and Roush standing together Sunday night in Daytona International Speedway's Victory Lane, flanking a Harley J. Earl trophy glistening from moisture and television lights, their clothes soaked by a mixture of rainfall and champagne. Kenseth, the driver who questioned his own abilities on a restrictor-plate race track, and went winless all of last season? Roush, the car owner whose triumphs have been eclipsed by his heartbreaks, and went without a victory in NASCAR's marquee event for 20 years?

Yet there they were, surrounded by joyous crewmen, with broad, almost unbelieving smiles on their faces and little pieces of confetti sticking to their rain-soaked shoes. Kenseth passed Elliott Sadler on the final green-flag lap, Aric Almirola spun to bring out a caution, skies that had threatened all day finally opened, and two men who figured they had little chance of winning the crown jewel of stock-car racing somehow wound up champions.

"We've been here for more than 20 years trying to do this thing, and I've been so conditioned to being frustrated through it, that I was almost not believing it happened," Roush said. "I'll be black and blue for the next couple of days just pinching myself to make sure I'm not dreaming."

Kenseth can relate. He never dreamed of actually winning the Daytona 500, not even as a kid. "When you grow up in Wisconsin, Daytona seems a long, long way away," said the native of Cambridge, Wis. He'll admit, he didn't wake up Sunday believing the Daytona 500 was his for the taking. Not after going winless for only the second time in his Cup Series career last season, not after going two years without seriously contending for the series crown. For a past champion, the relative lack of success was weighing on him, he told his wife a day earlier in their motorhome. He wasn't whining, but just being his usual, realistic self.

To top it off, for most of these Speedweeks he hadn't exactly been crazy about his car, which didn't handle as well as he wanted it to. Then there were his own doubts about his abilities on restrictor-plate tracks, and the deft drafting touch winning at such facilities demands. In nine years in NASCAR's major league, he had never won at one of the big tracks, Daytona or its sister venue in Talladega, Ala. Sunday night, the fact that he had finally done so left him a little shocked.

"Just to be able to put it together and actually win the Daytona 500, I don't feel like I'm the best really at plate racing," said Kenseth, who earned more than $1.5 million for the victory. "I feel like a lot of times I make mistakes, which is really frustrating. I don't get my car in the right place at the right time. To be able to put it all together, be able to win the race, is pretty overwhelming."

For Roush, it was long overdue. He came to Daytona with a stock car for the first time in 1988, when Mark Martin finished a distant 41st. In the ensuing years, it rarely got any better on the 2.5-mile oval. Even Sunday, he was too preoccupied with his usual Daytona disasters -- drivers Jamie McMurray and Carl Edwards both had great runs derailed by a 10-car accident sparked by Brian Vickers and Dale Earnhardt Jr. -- to relish in the fact that Kenseth was out front when Daytona's gray asphalt began to be discolored by drizzle. Kenseth wasn't taking anything for granted, either. During the rain delay before NASCAR officials called the race, some drivers got out of their cars to talk or retreat to their motorhomes. Kenseth stayed put, remaining in the car even after the black rain cover was draped over it.

"Sitting in the back pew at church, that's me," the driver said. "I just wanted to wait until it was over or we were going to go back racing again. I didn't want to let my emotions get too high one way or another."

Understandably so, given the unique combination of factors that had helped Kenseth reach that point. He had crashed his primary car in Thursday's qualifying race, but found he liked the handling of the backup vehicle better. He was in his first event with new crew chief Drew Blickensderfer, who moved over from the Nationwide side after former crew chief Chip Bolin requested to return to his old job as lead engineer. He was coming off a miserable 2008 season in which his typically steady No. 17 team never really recovered after championship crew chief Robbie Reiser was moved to a general manager position overseeing all the Roush teams.

Kenseth may have had doubts, plenty of them, entering the Daytona 500. But about his driver's ability, Roush never did.

"Matt Kenseth is as good at this business as anybody has been, and on days when he can't do what he needs to, it's because I haven't given him the tools," Roush said. "Last year I let him down by not being able to do for him what I needed to. Matt should have won last year. ... You only have to be off a little bit in this business. If you're off a hair, you just can't quite get it done. That was the year we had with Matt last year. Matt did all he needed to do, we just couldn't quite get it right for him."

Sunday, they did. Now Kenseth has his first race victory since the 2007 season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Now Roush has a long-sought-after Daytona 500 title to go with his two long-sought-after Cup championships. Now two men have done together what they doubted they would ever achieve apart.

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.