ROCKINGHAM, N.C. -- He's been criticized for being too critical himself. He's been accused of looking at Winston Cup racing as a glass that's half-empty, rather than half-full, among the first to complain about sometimes the least little nuances and turning them into cause celebres. He has even gone so far as to allege there's a NASCAR conspiracy against his team, trying to keep it down as much as possible.

If there's a knock to be made, Jack Roush is probably going to be the one to make it.

But there's one thing that has finally silenced Roush, something that he can't complain about anymore: how his team has never won a championship. What had been nothing short of an ignominious embarrassment since he formed his first Winston Cup team in 1988 was finally put to rest with Matt Kenseth clinching his and Roush Racing's first respective championships in Sunday's Pop Secret Microwave Popcorn 400 at North Carolina Speedway.

"Things certainly don't look as dark to me today as they have the days preceding and the years preceding," Roush said. "We've come close with Mark (Martin) four times (as season runners-up) and this would have been once for Matt if we weren't able to close the deal."

However, Kenseth and Roush indeed closed the deal, and they're now both champions as a result, Kenseth as the driver and Roush as the team owner.

But somehow, the post-championship celebration wouldn't be the same if Roush didn't find something to grouse about. He chose what normally should be a festive occasion -- and indeed it was for the most part afterward -- to get in a well-placed dig or two, such as talking about the upcoming tweaking that NASCAR will allow to the front and tail ends of Ford Tauruses for next season.

"I'm not going to air this again (even though he proceeded to do so), but we're going to get a fresh nose and a fresh tail," Roush said, almost as if he was gleefully putting a thorn into NASCAR's side. "Every year since 1997, we've had more templates and that has made us have a diminished car from what we had the year previous, so we don't have much of a car in comparison to what we had in '97. The Taurus is going to be improved markedly by the changes. Whether it's enough will be dependent on what we do with it and what everybody else does during the winter."

Yet, we also saw a more sentimental side of Roush Sunday, when he acknowledged that he very easily could have missed his defining moment as a Winston Cup owner if he didn't have a personal fan in higher places, the same fan that helped Roush survive what should have been a fatal plane crash in April 2002 while en route to a Cup race at Talladega.

	Roush came close with Mark Martin but finally won his championship with Matt Kenseth.

"You know, I laid in bed last night and thought about if things did break the way it looked like," Roush said. "If Mark (Martin) doesn't accept my offer to go to do the acceptance speech at the banquet (postseason awards banquet next month in New York City), I will certainly pay tribute to the set of circumstances that allowed me to survive my accident and to be here. I just about missed my first championship, that's for sure."

But because he survived and lived to see that first championship, doesn't mean Roush is finally personally satisfied. Quite the contrary. Now that he's won one as a team owner, he wants more, even if it means relinquishing much of the hands-on control over each of the teams in his organization as he did with Kenseth's team this year. He let Kenseth be the driver, Robbie Reiser be the crew chief and didn't meddle or interfere near as much as he has done in past years.

"I'm 61 years old now," Roush said. "When I started in Winston Cup I was 44. I have probably less energy and certainly we have a much bigger operation. I had less to do with the day-to-day things, the preparation, the inspection and the outcome of what happened this year than I have in the past. That may be the reason that we had a better result.

"I certainly look forward to the challenges of next year and the opportunities we've got for next year. I'm glad to be there with Mark (Martin) and with Kurt (Busch) and with Greg (Biffle) and with Jeff (Burton) as we go forward. When we finish with Homestead, we'll be leading in the points all winter until we go to that first race and we have to give up some of them on some of our cars."

Watching Roush immediately after the race, it was almost as if he was stunned, not really sure how to react or what to say to the driver who finally gave him what had been such an elusive prize, yet was the same thing Roush and his organization never stopped chasing day after day, year after year, for the past 15-plus years.

"What I said to Matt, I'm sure, was 'thanks' for trying and for being there, for hanging with me," Roush said. "We've had some ups and downs with our program with Matt and a lot with Mark as we tried to get smart enough to do this.

"I feel like I've just crashed through a plate glass window. It's been painful getting through it. I've fussed and I've complained more than I should about things that probably didn't mean as much in the last month really, and in more recent days, but it's really been tough emotionally to think about the four times we were there (as runner-ups in previous season) with Mark (Martin) and just coming up short. We've learned to come up short and to be able to get through it this time with Robbie (Reiser) and Matt, it's just a tremendous relief."

Jerry Bonkowski covers NASCAR for ESPN.com. He can be reached at Motorsportwriter@MSN.com.