Kevin Stellman works around cars that regularly exceed 200 mph, but the vehicles he takes care of putter around at little more than a brisk walking pace.

The contrast between a NASCAR race car and a golf cart is substantial.

Tortoises and hares being the obvious analogy.

But also greyhounds and dachshunds.

Secretariat and a Shetland pony.

A fighter jet and the Wright Brothers’ Flyer at Kitty Hawk.

Yet even though the fleet that Stellman, a 19-year-old from Baker City, helps to maintain isn’t, well, very fleet, the pace of his job, which takes him to some of the bigger and more famous racetracks in the country, is hardly placid.

Not with 640 of those golf carts to worry about.

Stellman’s first job since graduating from Baker High School in 2022 has given him a vastly different perspective for NASCAR, the racing circuit that routinely attracts hundreds of thousands of spectators, and millions more TV viewers.

He was among those viewers not so long ago.

Racing, and in particular NASCAR, is his family’s favorite sport.

“My mom (Crystal) is a huge NASCAR fan,” Stellman said. “Every Sunday we would watch the race on TV. It was definitely a big part of my life.”

And now it’s bigger.

The route to NASCAR

Stellman decided years ago that he wanted to pursue a career in the automotive industry.

His stepdad, Deric, is a mechanic, and he has spent many hours tinkering with cars with his dad.

(Although Deric isn’t his biological father, Kevin, who was 6 when his mom started dating Deric, said “he is my dad — the only person I’ve ever called dad.”)

Stellman’s initial plan was to attend WyoTech, a technical training college in Laramie, Wyoming, where students can learn, among much else, how to maintain and repair gasoline and diesel engines.

But he said his mom was leery.

“She thought Wyoming was too far,” he said.

Then a friend told Stellman about the NASCAR Technical Institute.

Which is considerably more distant than Wyoming. Most of the way across the nation, in fact, in Mooresville, North Carolina.

But it is affiliated with NASCAR.

Stellman’s mom overcame her geographic reservations.

In December 2021, during his senior year at BHS, Stellman interviewed with the NASCAR institute. He was accepted, and in August 2022 he started what turned out to be a 14-month stint.

The training covered a range of topics related to NASCAR and car racing, including welding and other metal fabrication, building and modifying engines, tuning suspensions and working on a pit crew.

Stellman said his ultimate goal is to work on a NASCAR team in some capacity.

He would enjoy working on the engines that propel cars beyond 200 mph on superspeedways.

Or tweaking a car’s chassis so it can stay on the track — even when navigating steeply banked corners — at such speeds.

Or working on a pit crew — one of the people who, in less time than most people need to unscrew their gas cap, replace four tires and replenish a NASCAR racer’s fuel tank in a frenzy of coordinated activity.

But his first opportunity after graduating from NASCAR Technical Institute was rather different.

Graduation to golf carts

Before Stellman graduated, a friend told him about a company called Speedway Motorsports LLC.

Like the NASCAR institute, the company, which owns 11 race tracks including the Atlanta Motor Speedway, Charlotte Motor Speedway, Las Vegas Motor Speedway, and Nashville Superspeedway, is based in North Carolina.

Before Stellman finished his training, he was offered a job with one of the company’s subsidiaries, SMI Properties. He started with the company on Oct. 16, 2023.

SMI Properties supplies the golf carts that are indispensable to putting on a NASCAR race, Stellman said. The company owns some carts and rents the rest, he said.

The gas-powered carts, instead of shuttling a couple of beer-swilling duffers around 18 holes, serve all sorts of purposes not only during auto races but during concerts and other events that SMI handles.

Vendors use carts, some with four seats and some with six, to haul food and souvenirs to their booths.

Others carry drivers and crew members.

And some serve as transportation for spectators who have physical handicaps.

The carts, being relatively small and nimble, are the ideal vehicles for superspeedways with their tracks, massive grandstands and parking lots that together sprawl over tens of acres, Stellman said.

Daytona International Speedway, for instance, the iconic track, about 50 miles north of Orlando, Florida, that is the site of NASCAR’s biggest annual race, the Daytona 500.

Even in a golf cart, Stellman said, the journey from one side of the complex to the other can take half an hour.

He traveled to Daytona Jan. 8, helping to prepare for the big race, which took place Feb. 19.

During a race, Stellman said he will be “running around all day.”

His overriding job is to make sure every cart is working properly, and that carts that have been rented out get to the right person or place.

But the dozens of individual tasks that come up are unpredictable.

He might have to repair an engine.

Or replace a broken axle.

During a race last year, for instance, Stellman said he had to help a client whose key broke off in the cart’s ignition.

“It took 30 minutes just to find the cart, there were so many people,” he said. “Race days are very hectic. You have to make sure the customer’s happy.”

Occasionally, if he’s lucky, Stellman said he gets to relax for a few minutes and actually watch the race that he helps make possible.

Enjoying chaos

Stellman’s work at Daytona didn’t end when the last car rolled over the finish line. He worked there until Feb. 23. After one day at his home in Kannapolis, North Carolina, he flew with the rest of his crew to Las Vegas, where NASCAR’s Pennzoil 400 race is scheduled for March 3.

The pace doesn’t afford Stellman many chances to return to Baker City to visit family and friends.

His last trip home was in April 2023, when he spent a week here.

Stellman said his parents, as dedicated NASCAR fans, are enthusiastic supporters of his career.

“My dad, any time he calls he tells me he’s proud of me,” Stellman said.

So is his mom.

Although she sometimes has a more specific topic to discuss with her son.

“Every time I tell her which race I’m working, she tells me, ‘I always wanted to go there,’ ” Stellman said.

The family’s next reunion, in fact, might well be not in tranquil Baker City, but amid the cacophony of a NASCAR race with its wailing engines competing against the roar of more than 100,000 fans.

Stellman said his parents have discussed trying to attend the Las Vegas race March 3.

In the meantime, he’ll keep dealing with the golf carts.

And wait for his chance to work with vehicles that are quite a lot speedier.

“There’s a lot to be excited about,” he said. “It can be stressful at times, but this is my job, what I chose to do.

“I see chaos as exciting.”