HOMESTEAD, Fla. -- Did you really expect the National Stock Car Racing Commission on Saturday to reverse the three separate penalties assessed against Mark Martin, crew chief Ben Leslie and team owner Jack Roush for using an unapproved spring in the race two weeks ago at Rockingham, N.C.?

After all, if you were commission chairman George Silbermann, or commission members John Bishop and John Capels, would you have reversed penalties that were supposed to make a statement and duly penalize the team for infractions, whether intentional or not?

The answer, most likely, is of course not. If the NSCRC were to do an about-face and absolve those penalized, it would set a precedent that would compromise NASCAR's integrity and impartiality, even if there's a championship at stake. If Roush, Martin and Leslie had been absolved -- or even if just Martin was spared NASCAR's wrath -- NASCAR would open itself to what could likely become an unending parade of complaints, from the largest to the most miniscule.

"You have to have a certain degree of expectation in order to have a certain degree of disappointment," said Roush Racing President Geoff Smith, speaking on behalf of the entire Roush operation after Saturday's decision. "We didn't have a high degree of expectation, so we have a low degree of disappointment that any result was going to be any different. We've made it clear all along that we thought our odds of (winning the appeal) were going to be negligible."

Sure, Roush could probably care less about the 25 owner points he lost. Likewise, Leslie probably just dipped into Roush Racing's petty cash to pay his $5,000 fine.

But the most costly penalty remains the 25 championship points that were deducted from Martin's total. And, if the title is ultimately decided by less than that, you can best believe that even those fans who cheer for Stewart and root against Martin will feel Stewart's title was tainted.

In other words, there are going to be a lot of people on Monday morning that will still feel NASCAR should have done the right thing from an emotional standpoint, even if it wasn't necessarily the right thing from a competition standpoint.

"If something was to happen (Sunday) and we were to wind up within 24 points of Tony and we hadn't appealed, we would never forgive ourselves when we had such a great case," Martin said in his typical diplomatic manner after Saturday's ruling.

Although the team has the option to still appeal the NSCRC's decision to the ultimate authority, NASCAR President Mike Helton, it won't exercise it.

"No, we're all done," Smith said. "You can only play Don Quixote and Sancho Panza for so long before you have to wrap it up. I think the clear point of what has occurred here is that the score of the contest can be altered enough, though there has been no performance gained on the playing field. Apparently from the outcome of this result, it's really fair warning to all of the race teams that no performance will take away the same amount of points as a performance-enhancing illegal part."

With his extremely disappointing qualifying run Friday -- Martin will start Sunday's race in 34th -- he all but gave up the ghost of catching Stewart even before Saturday's appeal was heard. Like Al Gore giving way to George W. Bush to end the presidential controversy in 2000, Martin showed the mark of a true champion -- even though he still has yet to win his first title -- by giving what amounted to a concession speech after the NSCRC issued its ruling.

"I just want to thank not only the race fans but the competitors and so many people that have come out of the woodwork over the past five, six months, when we really had a shot at this thing and as we got closer and closer to the end of it," Martin said. "It's meant a lot to me to see the people almost look like they wanted it even worse than I did.

"After last year, this has been sweet. I have great hopes for next year based on the things that have happened this year. The way we ran the last two weeks has been real special to me. Tony is a real hard guy to beat on the racetrack, but we've had cars that could contend to win the last two weeks in a row and that's not easy. … Hopefully we can continue going in that direction, but it's a tall order for (Sunday)."

Indeed it is, but did you expect anything else from NASCAR? Even though Martin is still seeking his first title, there was no way he was going to get any type of advantage or dispensation, lest it come back to haunt NASCAR in the future. How many other drivers would start screaming duplicity or favoritism when they're slapped for an infraction? To the sanctioning body, what's good for one has to be good for all.

I'm not surprised Martin's appeal went nowhere. I expected it. However, like many who could empathize with his plight, I still held a sliver of hope that that NASCAR would give in to Martin and turn Sunday into a true dogfight.

Instead, Sunday's race, particularly with Martin starting 34th and Stewart in sixth, will likely turn out to be a matter of what might have been, what could have been and what should have been -- but wasn't. NASCAR did what it had to do, and Martin has to do what he has to do Sunday -- hope for a miracle.

Smith put the entire situation into perspective.

"When I woke up (Saturday) morning, I was pretty sure that the oceans wouldn't boil and pigs wouldn't fly and that NASCAR wouldn't change it's mind -- and that all got corroborated today," he said.

It may not have been politically correct, but this is NASCAR. And, in the whole scheme of things, it really had no other alternative.

Jerry Bonkowski covers NASCAR for ESPN.com.