KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — Kyle Larson isn't quite ready to start thinking about his return to the Indianapolis 500.
That will change by Sunday night.
Click to Gallery
FILE - Chris Buescher during driver introductions before two NASCAR Daytona 500 qualifying auto races at Daytona International Speedway, Thursday, Feb. 13, 2025, in Daytona Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux, File)
Kyle Larson leads the pack during a NASCAR Cup Series auto race at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, Texas, Sunday, May 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Gareth Patterson)
NASCAR Cup Series driver Kyle Larson greets fans before a NASCAR Cup Series auto race at Talladega Superspeedway, Sunday, April 27, 2025, in Talladega, Ala. (AP Photo/Butch Dill)
Kyle Larson, front, leads the pack with Tyler Reddick in pursuit while coming out of Turn 4 during a NASCAR Cup Series auto race at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, Texas, Sunday, May 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Larry Papke)
And he would like nothing better than to have those thoughts of “the Double” — running every lap of the Indy 500 and Coca-Cola 600 on the same day Memorial Day weekend — enter his consciousness than in victory lane at Kansas Speedway, where Larson will be defending his win from a year ago in the closest finish in NASCAR Cup Series history.
“I haven't really thought about it much at all. Just kind of been excited about these upcoming races and tracks we can run well at,” Larson said before qualifying on the pole for Sunday's race. “I think once the checkered flag flies here at Kansas, I'll be excited about Indy, because I'll be headed to Indy.”
He has qualifying on deck at Indianapolis Motor Speedway next weekend.
Larson certainly had a memorable month of May last year, when he roared around the outside of Chris Buescher and beat him to the finish line by 0.001 seconds to win the race at Kansas Speedway. He headed from there to Indianapolis, where weather made for a stressful race weekend and ultimately scuttled his shot at completing all 1,100 laps.
Larson was among the leading cars in the rain-delayed Indy 500 until a late penalty for speeding on pit lane left him 18th. He then hopped a plane to Charlotte, where rain there kept him from making a single lap in the Cup Series race.
“It's been a bit busy for me here, just with a lot of racing I've done,” said Larson, who was involved in a hard crash in his sprint car at nearby Lakeside Speedway in the High Limit Racing series Friday night.
“With Indy, I haven't done a whole lot, but there's not much you can do studying wise. You can watch film, which I will and all that, but for Indy you have a lot of time really. So I think once you get in the car and understand the balance of the car, you can pick apart studying and you know, where your strengths and where your weaknesses are."
There don't seem to be many weaknesses when it comes to Larson in his No. 5 for Hendrick Motorsports. He already has won at Homestead and Bristol this season, and he's finished in the top five in each of the past three races.
Ryan Blaney doesn't think there are many weaknesses when it come to Larson in any car. And he will be among the many Cup Series drivers keeping an eye on how Larson fares in both the Indy 500 and his dash to the Coca-Cola 600 this year.
But as part of Team Penske, Blaney said, he hopes Larson finishes no better than fourth on May 25 in the Indy 500 — right behind two-time defending champion Josef Newgarden and Penske teammates Scott McLaughlin and Will Power.
“I thought it was really cool last year. He did a really good job there until he sped on pit road,” Blaney said. “I'm sure he will be in contention, but yeah, Penske loyalty. I want him to run fourth. But you do root for him because he's representing us.”
Larson turned a lap of 183.730 mph to earn the pole, and in quite a coincidence, Buescher will be starting alongside him after a lap of 183.374. Christopher Bell and Tyler Reddick will be right behind them in the second row.
Bell had won the last three poles at Kansas. The last to win four at any track was Larson at Sonoma Raceway from 2017-22.
Truck Series star Corey Heim will make his fourth career Cup Series start when he drives a fourth entry for 23XI Racing. His first two last year came with Legacy Motor Club, including a 22nd-place finish in the spring race at Kansas.
Meanwhile, Xfinity Series regular Jesse Love will make his third career Cup Series start for Richard Childress Racing. He made his debut for RCR last year at Bristol and was 31st last week in a car from Beard Motorsports.
Carson Hocevar tried to smooth things over with Ryan Preece this week after causing them to wreck late in last week's race at Texas. Preece called him out, saying Hocevar has “no respect for his equipment and any other driver out there.”
“He heard my point of view and I heard his, right? And we have a really good understanding going forward," Hocevar said.
Larson at +375 is the betting favorite to win Sunday, according to BetMGM Sportsbook, followed by Blaney (+700) and Tyler Reddick (+750). ... Joey Logano is the only driver to take Ford to victory lane in the last 12 races at Kansas. He is coming off a win last week at Texas. ... The last six Cup Series races at Kansas have been won by six different drivers.
AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing
FILE - Chris Buescher during driver introductions before two NASCAR Daytona 500 qualifying auto races at Daytona International Speedway, Thursday, Feb. 13, 2025, in Daytona Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux, File)
Kyle Larson leads the pack during a NASCAR Cup Series auto race at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, Texas, Sunday, May 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Gareth Patterson)
NASCAR Cup Series driver Kyle Larson greets fans before a NASCAR Cup Series auto race at Talladega Superspeedway, Sunday, April 27, 2025, in Talladega, Ala. (AP Photo/Butch Dill)
Kyle Larson, front, leads the pack with Tyler Reddick in pursuit while coming out of Turn 4 during a NASCAR Cup Series auto race at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, Texas, Sunday, May 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Larry Papke)
SYDNEY (AP) — Two gunmen attacked a Hannukah celebration on a Sydney beach Sunday, killing at least 11 people in what Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called an act of antisemitism and terrorism.
The massacre at one of Australia’s most popular and iconic beaches followed a wave of antisemitic attacks that have roiled the country over the past year, although the authorities didn’t suggest those episodes and Sunday’s shooting were connected. It is the deadliest shooting for almost three decades in a country with strict gun control laws.
One gunman was fatally shot by police and the second, who was arrested, was in critical condition, authorities said. Police said one of the gunmen was known to the security services, but that there had been no specific threat.
At least 29 people were confirmed wounded, including two police officers, said Mal Lanyon, the police commissioner for New South Wales state, where Sydney is located.
Police said officers were examining a number of suspicious items, including several improvised explosive devices found in one of the suspect’s cars.
“This attack was designed to target Sydney's Jewish community,” the state's premier, Chris Minns, said. The massacre was declared a terrorist attack due to the event targeted and weapons used, Lanyon said.
Hundreds had gathered for the Chanukah by the Sea event celebrating the start of the eight-day Hanukkah festival.
Chabad, an Orthodox Jewish movement that runs scores of centers around the world that are popular with Jewish travelers and sponsors large public events during major Jewish holidays, identified one of the dead as Rabbi Eli Schlanger, assistant rabbi at Chabad of Bondi and a key organizer of the event.
Video footage filmed by onlookers appeared to show two gunmen with long guns firing from a footbridge leading to the beach. One dramatic clip broadcast on Australian television showed a man appearing to tackle and disarm one of the gunmen, before pointing the man’s weapon at him, then setting the gun on the ground.
Minns called the man a “genuine hero.”
Police said emergency services were called to Campbell Parade in Bondi about 6.45 p.m. responding to reports of shots being fired.
Lachlan Moran, 32, from Melbourne, told The Associated Press he was waiting for his family nearby when he heard shots. He dropped the beer he was carrying for his brother and ran.
“You heard a few pops, and I freaked out and ran away. ... I started sprinting. I just had that intuition. I sprinted as quickly as I could," Moran said. He said he heard shooting off and on for about five minutes.
“Everyone just dropped all their possessions and everything and were running and people were crying and it was just horrible," Moran said.
The violence erupted at the end of a hot summer day when thousands had flocked to the beach.
“It was the most perfect day and then this happened,” said local resident Catherine Merchant.
“Everyone was just running and there were bullets and there were so many of them and we were really scared,” she told Australia’s ABC News.
Albanese told reporters in the Australian capital, Canberra, that he was “devastated” by the massacre.
“This is a targeted attack on Jewish Australians on the first day of Hanukkah, which should be a day of joy, a celebration of faith. An act of evil, antisemitism, terrorism that has struck the heart of our nation,” Albanese said.
“Amidst this vile act of violence and hate will emerge a moment of national unity where Australians across the board will embrace their fellow Australians of Jewish faith,” he said.
World leaders expressed condolences. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi condemned the “ghastly terrorist attack” and offered his condolences to the families who lost their loved ones.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he was being updated on the “appalling attack.” Police in London said they would step up security at Jewish sites.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a post on X that “The United States strongly condemns the terrorist attack in Australia targeting a Jewish celebration. Antisemitism has no place in this world.”
Australia, a country of 28 million people, is home to about 117,000 Jews, according to official figures. Antisemitic incidents, including assaults, vandalism, threats and intimidation, surged more than threefold in the country during the year after Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and Israel launched a war on Hamas in Gaza in response, the government's Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism Jillian Segal reported in July.
Throughout last summer, the country was rocked by spate of antisemitic attacks in Sydney and Melbourne. Synagogues and cars were torched, businesses and homes graffitied and Jews attacked in those cities, where 85% of the nation’s Jewish population live.
Albanese in August blamed Iran for two of the attacks and cut diplomatic ties to Tehran. The authorities didn't make such claims about Sunday's massacre.
Israel urged Australia's government to address crimes targeting Jews.
“The heart of the entire nation of Israel misses a beat at this very moment,” Israeli President Isaac Herzog said. “We repeat our alerts time and time again to the Australian government to seek action and fight against the enormous wave of antisemitism which is plaguing Australian society.”
Mass shootings in Australia are extremely rare. A 1996 massacre in the Tasmanian town of Port Arthur, where a lone gunman killed 35 people, prompted the government to drastically tighten gun laws and made it much more difficult for Australians to acquire firearms.
Significant mass shootings this century included two murder-suicides with death tolls of five people in 2014, and seven in 2018, in which gunmen killed their own families and themselves.
In 2022, six people were killed in a shootout between police and Christian extremists at a rural property in Queensland state.
McGuirk reported from Melbourne, Australia, and Graham-McLay from Wellington, New Zealand. Associated Press writer Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv, Israel, contributed to this report.
A small Christmas tree is at the center of an abandoned holiday picnic at Bondi Beach after a reported shooting in Sydney, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)
Bystanders stay where police cordon off an area at Bondi Beach after a reported shooting in Sydney, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)
Emergency workers transport a person on a stretcher after a reported shooting at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)
Emergency workers standby at Bondi Beach after a reported shooting in Sydney, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)
Emergency workers transport a person on a stretcher after a reported shooting at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)
Emergency workers transport a person on a stretcher after a reported shooting at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)
Emergency workers transport a person on a stretcher after a reported shooting at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)
Emergency workers transport a person on a stretcher after a reported shooting at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)
Emergency workers transport a person on a stretcher after a reported shooting at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)
Emergency workers transport a person on a stretcher after a reported shooting at Bondi Beach, in Sydney, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)
