AVONDALE, Ariz. -- The story can now be told: Penske Racing driver Kurt Busch is a candidate for president of the Jimmie Johnson Fan Club.

At least for a day, that is.

“

I don't know if I'm supposed to talk about my team and my crew right now or what Jimmie [Johnson] is doing in this sport. We were pretty good [Sunday], but we weren't that good.

”

-- KURT BUSCH

But after finishing second to Johnson in Sunday's Checker O'Reilly Auto Parts 500 at Phoenix International Raceway, Busch said he's not a candidate for a seat at Johnson's Hendrick Motorsports; or anywhere else, for that matter.

"We had a great car [Sunday] and we got beat by an even better team," Busch said. "I don't know if I'm supposed to talk about my team and my crew right now or what Jimmie is doing in this sport. We were pretty good [Sunday], but we weren't that good [as Johnson's No. 48 team]."

Make no mistake; Busch was trying to liven the day up for the fans, as well as the promoters of next weekend's season finale Ford 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway, who were praying for more of a battle between Johnson and Carl Edwards for the championship.

"I had as a game plan to at least get close enough to [Johnson] to make him think big picture and to force him into actually making it cross his mind," Busch said of his late-race stalking attempt. "I just couldn't get that close. Of course I want to race a guy clean when he's running for the championship -- I would want him to do the same for me.

"It was a matter of trying to get to his bumper, but I couldn't quite get there. I couldn't quite put enough pressure on him. I knew that I had all the race fans up on their seats. I was hoping to put on a good show, wanting to get there -- wanting to get next to him.

"I wanted to win for our team, but just came up a bit short. We got beat by a really good team."

During the 10-race Chase for the Sprint Cup championship playoffs, in which he's accrued the third-most points in the unofficial "Chased-Out standings" for drivers not in the official Chase behind David Ragan and Jamie McMurray, Busch has intermittently challenged to right a season that started great but has mostly gone oh-so-wrong.

After a one-two Penske finish in the season-opening Daytona 500 behind Ryan Newman, Busch's season has spiraled to his current 18th position in the standings, with only 10 top-10s to show, though four of them have come in the nine Chase races.

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."