Recovering Kyle Busch ready to take on Coca-Cola 600 on Super Sunday

ONCE AGAIN, it's time for The Greatest Day in Sports: the Indianapolis 500 Sunday afternoon followed by the Coca-Cola 600 at night . . . 1,100 miles of racin' . . . For race fans, this is the real Super Sunday.

The 99th Indy 500 is scheduled for noon (6ABC). The Coca-Cola 600 will be on Fox 29 at 6 p.m. For Formula One fans, the day begins with the Monaco Grand Prix (7:30 a.m., NBC10).

The 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway marks Kyle Busch's return to Sprint Cup racing following his recuperation from injuries suffered in a crash Feb. 21 in an Xfinity series race at Daytona. Busch finished sixth in Saturday night's All-Star race at Charlotte.

"I think we learned some stuff, myself and [crew chief] Adam Stevens, about this race car, and getting around here in Charlotte," he said of his All-Star experience. "So we can take some of that this week and look forward to the Coke 600.

"I was sore for a couple days, just muscles that haven't been woken up like this in a little while. It's nothing new. Typically I get that in the beginning of the year, anyway. It takes a few weeks to kind of get warmed up to things, your body to kind of settle in. I was out of the race car the longest I've ever been in my career. Other than that, I just feel fine.

Even though Busch has a staggering 141 wins in the Cup, Xfinity and Camping World Truck Series, he's never won a Cup race in 22 starts at Charlotte. He has two runner-up Cup finishes and eight other top fives. Busch has eight wins at Charlotte in the Xfinity series and six in trucks.

Kasey Kahne is a three-time winner of the Coke 600. He is 10th in points, with one top-five finish and three top 10s. A year ago, heading into Charlotte, he was 16th.

"It's been nice not to be so far behind early in the year," Kahne said. "We got out of Daytona [in February] without wrecking, and that was something different than, I think, the six previous 500s, so it was nice to start off in the top 10. We've been able to do a pretty good job of staying in that top 10 since.

A slain Navy SEAL from Atco, N.J., will have his name on Kurt Busch's No. 41 Chevrolet during the Coca-Cola 600 as part of NASCAR's "600 Miles of Remembrance." Drivers in the race are replacing their names with those of military members.

Petty Officer 1st Class David M. Tapper, 32, was on his third tour of duty in 2003 when his unit was ambushed near the Afghanistan-Pakistan border and he died. Tapper is survived by his wife Tracy and four children.

It's been a scary month at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, with four cars going airborne in crashes during practices. James Hinchcliffe suffered the worst injuries in his crash Monday. According to racer.com, a piece of the supension penetrated and exited Hinchcliffe's right leg, then went through his left thigh into his pelvic area.

He was bleeding profusely when IndyCar safety and medical personnel arrived. Longtime Indy observers said it was one of the most violent crashes ever. Hinchcliffe had surgery and will miss Sunday's race.

Hoping to prevent more crashes, IndyCar reduced power and increased downforce on the cars for qualifying.

Three Chevrolets are on the front row: Scott Dixon, the 2008 Indy 500 winner, was fastest at 226.760 mph, followed by Will Power (226.350) and Simon Pagenaud (226.145).

Power won the Grand Prix of Indianapolis May 9, leading 65 of 82 laps on the speedway's 2.439-mile, 14-turn road course. Graham Rahal was runner-up.

Two racers from Nazareth, Pa., are in the starting lineup. Marco Andretti will start eighth (225.189) and Sage Karam is 23rd (223.595).

There's another race Sunday, and this one is in our area. Talk about puzzling scheduling; the ARCA series will race at New Jersey Motorsports Park in Millville at 1:30 p.m. Why not run the 150-mile ARCA race Saturday, so it wouldn't conflict with the big three on Super Sunday?

NJMP is the home track for Cherry Hill's Tom Hessert. He's third in points, 50 behind leader Grant Enfinger.

Driving the No. 77 Barbera's Autoland Dodge, Hessert finished second last Sunday at Toledo, Ohio.

"That's probably the worst we've been all year," Hessert said yesterday. "We didn't handle well. Earlier in the year we were really fast, but we were turned around in one race and ran out of fuel at Talladega. That's the way our sport is."

Hessert, who turns 29 tomorrow, said he also is surprised ARCA is racing Sunday afternoon.

"For the sake of ARCA and the racetrack, I hope we have a good crowd," he said. Laughing, he continued, "Let me know who wins Indy."

I told him to keep his cellphone handy during the 67-lap ARCA race and that I'd text him with the Indy result.

The five newest inductees for NASCAR's Hall of Fame were announced last night: former drivers Terry Labonte, Curtis Turner, Bobby Isaac and Jerry Cook, and track owner Bruton Smith.

Harold Brasington, founder of Darlington Raceway, NASCAR's first superspeedway, will receive the second Landmark Award for growing the sport.

They will be inducted Jan. 22, 2016, at the Hall of Fame in Charlotte.

Coca-Cola 600

Charlotte Motor Speedway, Concord, N.C.

When: Sunday, 6 p.m.

TV/Radio: Fox 29/WNPV (1440-AM)

Course: 1.5-mile oval

Distance: 400 laps/600 miles

Forecast: thunderstorms, upper 80s

Last year's winner: Jimmie Johnson

Last year's pole: Johnson, 194.911 mph

Track qualifying record: Kyle Busch, 197.39 mph (Oct. 2014)

Track facts: Jimmie Johnson led the most laps (164), including the last nine, in winning last year's race. Kevin Harvick (100 laps led) was runner-up; Matt Kenseth was third. Harvick won the fall race at Charlotte ... Johnson's seven victories at Charlotte are the most ever. Retired drivers Bobby Allison and Darrell Waltrip won six times each. Jeff Gordon is a five-time winner at the track. Kasey Kahne has four wins (three in the Coca-Cola 600) ... Ford's last win in the 600 was in 2002, by Mark Martin.

Wins: Jimmie Johnson, 3; Kevin Harvick, 2; Joey Logano, Brad Keselowski, Denny Hamlin, Matt Kenseth, Kurt Busch, Dale Earnhardt Jr., 1 each.

STANDINGS

1 . Kevin Harvick 437

2 . Martin Truex Jr. 391

3 . Jimmie Johnson 389

4 . Joey Logano 375

5 . Dale Earnhardt Jr. 360

6 . Brad Keselowski 343

7 . Matt Kenseth 331

8 . Jamie McMurray 328

9 . Jeff Gordon 317

10 . Kasey Kahne 313

11 . Aric Almirola 312

12 . Paul Menard 306

13 . Ryan Newman 305

14 . Kurt Busch 292

15 . Denny Hamlin 284

16 . Clint Bowyer 272

17 . Danica Patrick 270

18 . Carl Edwards 265

19 . AJ Allmendinger 259

20 . Casey Mears 242

21 . Greg Biffle 242

Up next: FedEx 400 Benefiting Autism Speaks, May 31, Dover International Speedway, Dover, Del., 1 p.m.; TV: Fox Sports 1; last year's winner: Jimmie Johnson.