Former champion Busch has high praise for Johnson (cont'd)

But neither Busch nor anyone else has been a match down the stretch for Johnson, who has to finish 36th or better at Homestead to clinch his third consecutive Cup championship.

"What he's building on and what they're doing with three championships in a row, it's something very special," Busch said. "I encourage all the fans to come out and watch and be there on TV. Jimmie Johnson is putting a whupping on everybody."

While Busch led twice Sunday and dogged Johnson's tire tracks for the end of Sunday's 313-miler, he ended the day thoroughly impressed with Johnson's ability.

"We did have three or four opportunities to go for Jimmie," Busch said of the three cautions that slowed the race in its final 29 laps and ostensibly gave him three more shots to pass. Only the last, on a green-white-checkered finish that extended the race one lap beyond its scheduled distance, had any hope of succeeding.

"It's something special," Busch said of what he witnessed Sunday. "I love putting up a fight at the end to go for the win. We had plenty of opportunities -- we just got beat by a better car.

"We felt like we had a great race [Sunday]. We had a great racecar underneath us. We had a great effort all around with pit stops, changes during the race, nice and steady progress all day. We thought we were on our game. We thought we had most of the group covered, but we just got beat and we got beat by something special."

One episode, in particular, gave him a glaring review of what his team had chased all season, the first full year with NASCAR's new car. He shared it sitting on the Media Center dais with third-place finisher McMurray.

"That restart when he was behind you," he said to McMurray, "and I was running third, I'm like, 'all right, here's our chance to juke it up a little bit -- let's see if Jimmie struggles.'

"He went high, he cut low -- he was underneath Jamie and clear by the [backstretch] dogleg. I watched something so special and said, 'that's why they are so dominant.'

"That's something that I want to get with my car. I want to get that feel underneath me. He cut and bobbed and weaved and he was gone. That's hard to beat."

Something else that's hard to escape is the ever-present cesspool of rumor and innuendo that Busch has been in the midst of, hinting he wanted out of his deal at Penske, where he's labored for three seasons.

But leaving is not an option according to the Las Vegas wheelman; who'll be undisputed lead dog at Penske next season when Ryan Newman goes to work for owner-driver Tony Stewart at the newly-minted Stewart-Haas Racing.

The coin was flipped in 2004, when Busch won his lone Cup championship to date in the first Chase season. He held off Johnson for the title in a wild Homestead finish, and when he recounted that and Johnson's current hot run, he provided some perspective on how allegedly easy Johnson and his crew chief, Chad Knaus, have made the last three seasons seem.

"Yes and no," Busch said when asked if he was surprised by Johnson's dominance. "I mean [2004] was a battle to the end. I wish every Chase could be like that so that every driver gets to go through the gut-wrenching feel that we had to go through.

"As a quick timeline, in 2006 [Johnson's team] peaked -- they hit their game. That's when we had the old downforce car and they were tough to beat. In 2007, it was a transitional year. They were really strong with the new car and they were real strong with the old car, and if you win in a transitional year, that's only going to bode well for the future.

"In 2008, they're on their game. It's something special to watch."