Some lessons are learned the hard way. Like many of the Indy 500 Rookies before him, Kurt Busch encountered his first open-wheel crash at Indianapolis Motor Speedway today. The NASCAR Cup champion lost the back end of his car coming out of Turn 2, and slammed hard into the outside wall before coming to rest in the grass. He was fine, but the car was destroyed. Kurt said that he “let his guard down” while running in traffic. He said he learned that he will need to make the proper adjustments in the car. Busch will use Marco Andretti’s backup car, but will still be able to start in the 12th position in which he qualified.

Aside from that incident for Andretti Autosport, it was business as usual at the Speedway on Monday. The extra boost was lowered, so speeds were more reflective of the ones we saw prior to qualifying this past weekend. Josef Newgarden had the fastest lap of the day, at 227.105 mph. Teams were mostly working on race setups, and working in traffic.

Click here to see the official practice results from Monday’s practice

Teams and drivers will have one last opportunity to adjust their cars before the race on Sunday. There will be one hour of IndyCar practice on Carb Day, which is this Friday. The practice session begins at 11 AM. The Indy Lights Freedom 100 race is scheduled to start at 12:30, and the Pit Stop Challenge is set to begin at 1:30. After that, the next time these cars will see the track will be race day, for the 98th running of the Indianapolis 500.

Below is a replay of Kurt Busch’s crash, from IndyCar’s YouTube channel.