By Mike Kitchel
Motorsports isn’t a world for people obsessed with sticking to a plan or those who draw comfort in the monotony of working nine-to-five. Part of what makes this business fascinating is the inevitable consistency of the unexpected. It’s remarkable, at times, to analyze just how far you deviate off the map and still manage to hit the mark. No matter how much you prepare, or how deeply in stone your original plan is etched, a time will arrive where its relevance becomes moot.

Pole Day at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway is one of professional sports’ true anomalies – even within the very sport that’s made it an annual staple for over a century. Here, a collection of the world’s most brash and fearless athletes – explicitly wired to exceed speeds most humans cannot comprehend – line up to dance along both sides of the razor’s edge.