Cross' Words: Pocono

Random ruminations after Pocono ...

• There's been more style than substance to Juan Montoya's rookie season. He's quickly adapted to the rubbin'-is-racin' part, but two top-10s are offset by 10 finishes of 20th or worse ...

• Send Duane your thoughts

• Lookee there -- Matt Kenseth is second in points! Who knew? He's raced a series-best 4,559 laps on the lead lap -- and has gotten six on-air mentions, two of which came in Victory Lane at California. C'mon, someone stick a camera in his face; he's quite entertaining, if you didn't know ...

• RCR also has been flying below the radar, but did you know:

→ Jeff Burton has a series-high 884 Quality Passes (passes of cars in the top 15 under green-flag conditions).

→ Kevin Harvick tops the series with 1,445 Green Flag Passes.

(Keep reading for the Clint Bowyer kudos.)

• A year ago Jeff Gordon was mired in 11th position, 501 points behind Jimmie Johnson. ... Must be the hair.

• Martin Truex Jr.'s new crib has a grotto. No word if E! is looking to move production of The Girls Next Door to Charlotte.

• The France trophy -- a fitting name for the champion's hardware. Will it come to pass? Guess that's a call for Sprint/Nextel.

• Joe Nemechek finished 15th at Dover, the No. 13's sixth top-20 in 13 races. There are worse drivers to have on your team; he stays out of trouble (for the most part) and brings home a decent finish. Anything more you could ask from a first-year team?

• Greg Biffle -- ditch the dish; two races with Dish Network yield an average finish of 36.5. ... On the other hand, you've been tremendously consistent through 14 races: 21.4 average start, 21.4 average finish.

• Nice debut, Chad McCumbee. That 25th-place finish was better than Jon Wood, Johnny Benson, John Andretti, Aric Almirola and Kevin Lepage had in their starts this year.

• Notice the drivers weren't pacing themselves on Sunday? The teams were trying to beat the rain, and that made for better racing. ... So why is 500 the magic number? Sic the Gillette Young Guns on 'em and shear the number on several of the annual snoozers.

• Hey, TNT -- mic-up Kyle Petty and Larry McReynolds, give 'em a case of their choice and let the cameras roll. And nice job of filling three hours of rain delay without falling back on Law & Order. (Continued)