NASCAR QNA: It's official, Kevin Harvick has a screw loose; also, anyone seen Kyle Busch?

Kevin Harvick was DQ’d over loose windshield screws at Talladega? Seems a bit harsh, doesn’t it?

Instead of getting credit for that close second-place finish at Talladega, Harvick was dumped into last place, which raises an obvious question: Would he have had the win stripped from him if he’d gotten to the stripe a split second sooner and ahead of Ryan Blaney?

That would’ve been a big feel-good win for the soon-to-retire racer and, therefore, a tough call to make.

Meanwhile, the penalty is severe because we’ve seen windshields pop off of cars and fly through the air in unpredictable manner — yes, even into grandstands.

From an overall safety aspect, making sure those  windshields stay grounded is extremely important, hence the seriousness of the penalty, even if it was indeed a fluke occurrence and no one is truly at fault.

NASCAR SPEED FREAKS From Roval to Round of 8, and Ryan Blaney will be there

What has happened to Kyle Busch in the NASCAR playoffs?

Kyle’s woes in the No. 8 Chevy actually go back to before the playoffs, back to early August.

In the past nine races, he’s finished no better than seventh and has had five finishes of 20th or worse, including finishes of 34th, 36th and 37th. Seven of his nine laps led during that stretch were at plate-races.

This was the type of struggle we would’ve excused early in his first year with Childress Racing, but he spent most of the regular season between fifth and eighth in the standings.

He quit leading laps at the midseason point and quit coaxing good finishes shortly thereafter. He has a pair of runner-up finishes at road courses this year, but guess what: They were both back in the spring.

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: NASCAR, Talladega: Kevin Harvick has a screw loose; Kyle Busch is AWOL