LAS VEGAS — While other students were thinking Pittsburgh sports, David Stetzer was thinking NASCAR.

That thought changed his life.

A 1982 Butler graduate, Stetzer was majoring in sports management at Slippery Rock University and had to find a sports internship to complete his degree.

“Most of the other sports management majors contacted the Pirates, Steelers or Penguins, looking for something local,” Stetzer recalled. “I had a thing for NASCAR racing and decided to write a letter to Charlotte Motor Speedway.

“That was the center of NASCAR, basically, and I asked if there was any internship opportunities there. I didn't know if I'd hear back or not ... just took a shot.”

That was in 1989. And the shot landed.

Stetzer began a four-month long internship at Charlotte Motor Speedway in January of that year. When the internship ended, he was offered a job there as track rental coordinator.

He never left the racing business.

Now 53, Stetzer has been Vice President of Operations at Las Vegas Motor Speedway since 2003. He has been married for 28 years to fellow Butler grad Maria Michalek and the couple have children ages 28, 24 and 16.

“My dream got started in North Carolina and it will end here,” he said of Las Vegas. “I don't see us leaving.”

He certainly has plenty to do there.

Las Vegas Motor Speedway hosts two NASCAR races each year. The Pennzoil 400 runs March 4 and the South Point 400 is slated for Sept. 16 this year.

But the speedway consists of eight different tracks — including a drag-strip, dirt tracks, inside and outside road courses and an off-road course.

“The dragstrip here has become a world-class track and we have a lot of big events with that,” Stetzer said. “All told, we're in the events business here. The (Las Vegas) racing facilities hosted 1,340 events in 2017.

“We want things to happen seven days a week, 365 days a year. It's hard to maintain a quality dirt racing surface out here in the desert, but we do it.”

Stetzer cut his teeth on his career during his years in Charlotte. He was president and general manager of 600 Racing,Inc., a small organization in the race track industry. He moved his family to Las Vegas in 1999 and became Director of Short Track Racing before assuming his current title.

From 1989 through 1992, Stetzer was in charge of renting the Charlotte track through any means possible to increase revenues for the facility. That included renting the track to Paramount Pictures for the filming of the movie “Days of Thunder,” featuring Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman.

“They were there for six months filming that picture,” Stetzer said. “I learned a lot about the movie industry. I was asked to sit in on a number of the weekly production meetings.

“I met Tom Cruise, shook his hand ... The whole movie thing was a cool experience.”

Stetzer has also gotten to know some of the NASCAR drivers, Bill Elliott and Jeff Gordon among others, fairly well through the years.

“That was more Charlotte than Las Vegas,” he said. “A number of drivers live in the Charlotte area and would come over and run a few test laps at the track from time to time, or would just randomly pop in. That's how I'd get to know them, engage in conversation.

“They don't live in LasVegas or use that facility much unless the race is here.”

Among Stetzer's duties as vice president of operations at the Las Vegas facility are public safety, security and traffic management — not an easy thing when the NASCAR series comes to town.

The speedway is located 12 miles outside of the city “and 130,000 people are in attendance, all coming in on a two-lane access road,” Stetzer said.

“We have to park 30,000 cars in the parking lot. It gets kinda crazy,” he added.

But he loves his job.

Stetzer also deals with the Legend Series — featuring older style cars — the World of Outlaws, NHRA and other national racing organizations.

He received the Bruton Smith Award in 2015 for dedication and desire to succeed. Smith is Chairman of the Board at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

“I'm having a career in something I always loved as a kid ... all because of an internship letter I wrote,” Stetzer said. “You never know what decisions will impact your life.”