So, Kevin Harvick "blows an engine" at California, wrecks his car, and leaves the track before the race is complete. In so doing, he crapped all over his modern-era record of 81-straight races without a DNF. No one bats an eye or questions his dedication to the team or the sport. Fallout? Not a bit. Indignation? None. About all anyone can do is say Gee, isn't that a shame about Kevin's streak?

Well, it turns out, Harvick didn't blow an engine and he could've returned to the race and preserved his oh-so-important streak. But nooooo. He'd already left. So there was fallout, right? Uh, no. Not so much as a you dolt from any esteemed member of the Fourth Estate. Just a well, would you get a load of that link on Jayski.

Nope, it appears ol' Kevin gets himself a pass.

Rewind to late 2007, when a certain Kyle Busch left the track after a wreck and before the race was complete. Fallout? You want to talk about fallout -- unconscionable, classless, selfish ... you name it, the scorn, she was heaped. You'd have thought Kyle had plucked the wings off a lady bug for all the outrage.

Fine, you want to argue that Busch was and perhaps is a petulant little yutz who had successfully alienated damn-near everyone at Hendrick Motorsports and that he stormed away from his garage in a huff that day whereas Harvick is a well-liked member of one of the sport's most respected outfits and that he wasn't the only guy on his team who left early two weeks ago and that, oh, yeah, he is also well-liked within NASCAR so that makes these two situations totally different?

Whatever.