Kahne hopes early success a sign for the entire season

LAS VEGAS -- Kasey Kahne may drive the No. 9 Budweiser Dodge, but he still gets carded occasionally when he's out on the town.

The rule of thumb, or rather facial hair: if he shaves and wears a hat, it's not as easy to order up an ice-cold Bud because he usually is first asked to pull out identification to prove he's of age. If he doesn't shave and doesn't wear a hat to an establishment, usually it's smooth sailing with no carding delays.

Kahne is asked often about his boyish good looks, and how they work with his new beer sponsor.

"I still get that. But that's just the way it is. It's better to have that than for people to think I'm too old for the product," said Kahne, smiling.

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As if to remind everyone he's not as young as he might look, Kahne also added: "I'm 27, so I've been legal for six years."

He also has been driving at NASCAR's Sprint Cup level for going on five years, as hard as that might be to believe. He broke in at age 23 in 2004, after driving in what is now the Nationwide Series for two years -- but previously he had spent his entire racing career in open-wheel series.

"I came into Cup when I was 23. I wouldn't have wanted to come even a year earlier," said Kahne, who is sixth in the 2008 point standings heading into this Sunday's UAW-Dodge 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. "I think, for me, that fit perfect as far as what I did before Cup -- as far as racing sprint cars and all that. I wouldn't want to give a single race back to have been in Cup earlier. I love every bit of the way my career has gone."

Well, to say that he loves every bit of it is, frankly, a bit of a stretch.

He certainly didn't like the way it was going about this time last year.

Kahne finished seventh in the season-opening 2007 Daytona 500, but then suffered through three consecutive poor finishes that put him on the cusp of being out of the top 35 in points. He finished 38th after starting second in the second race of the season at California, finished 35th after sitting on the pole for the third race at Las Vegas and followed that up with a 39th-place finish at Atlanta.

That left Kahne in a precarious position heading into the fifth race of the season at Bristol, where he needed a decent finish to avoid falling out of the top 35 -- which would have forced him to qualify on time for the sixth race at Martinsville. Kahne qualified second and finished 19th, beginning a slow but relatively steady march forward in the standings that got him to 19th overall by the end of the season.

"As far as the racing, there was pressure. We had to finish well that day [at Bristol] in order to not be out there on the edge [of the top 35]," Kahne said. "But as far as driving the car on qualifying day, you can only do what you can do -- and you go for it. The good drivers step up when the pressure is on the line, and the other ones don't."

Despite rallying somewhat after the rough start last year, Kahne did not win a race and finished in the top five only once. And that was just one year removed from winning a series-high six races and capturing a series-high six poles in 2006 while finishing in the top five 12 times.

It's early, but heading into this latest Las Vegas event, Kahne said he feels a whole lot better about where his current season is headed. He started 10th and finished seventh in the Daytona 500, then headed to California, where he started 20th and finished ninth.

Kahne attributed his more consistent start to a new infrastructure at Gillett Evernham Motorports, which gained an influx of operating cash when the team's founder, Ray Evernham, sold controlling interest of his operation to George Gillett. He said it also helps that the team isn't having to switch back and forth from preparing old cars to the new ones now being run in the NASCAR's top series. The new one is being run in all races this season.

"It's definitely true that we're further along, and we're better," Kahne said. "As far as the structure of the team, everything is better in order to run good for a longer period of time. Yeah, we struggled last year. But so far this year things have been much better. We're focusing on one racecar. I feel like we're right back where we need to be. The communication is great.

"So yeah, things are different. We won't know for a few more races how good we really are, but I think as of right now we've done a really good job at the start of this season."

Kahne was one of six Dodge drivers who experienced trouble during Friday's 90-minute Cup practice session at Las Vegas, getting sideways and scraping the wall briefly. Also experiencing troubles during Friday's practice were Bobby Labonte, Juan Montoya, Sam Hornish Jr., Reed Sorenson and Kahne's Gillett Evernham Motorsports teammate, Patrick Carpentier.

But Kahne insisted that nothing will get him down this season. Not even if he heads out to the famous Las Vegas Strip for a cold adult beverage and has his age questioned -- again. He also insisted that while he may not look like much of a beer drinker, he truly is a fan of the product that adorns the hood of his car.

"Always have been," he said. "I'm a big fan of Anheuser-Busch and Budweiser. It's a good fit."