Kasey Kahne had just gone through a rather serious explanation of why he was excited about gaining a new sponsor for several upcoming Nextel Cup events.

Then it was Ward Burton’s turn.

“I’m excited about finding out where Kasey gets his great haircuts,” he said.

Kahne smiled.

It is not often that this shy 24-year-old, who is one of People’s “50 Hottest Bachelors,” smiles. He typically looks as though he’s about to testify in front of a government panel.

“I look serious a lot because I am, but really I’m having a lot of fun, especially inside,” said Kahne, who is sponsored by Great Clips.

He should be.

If a rookie is to win the inaugural Chase for the Championship, Kahne is the guy. He is 11th in the points race, 24 behind teammate Jeremy Mayfield for the coveted 10th position after last Sunday’s race at Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International.

“There’s a good bit of pressure on us now to get there,” Kahne said. “At the same time, it’s our rookie season and that takes a little bit of the pressure off.

“At the same time, we want to finish in the top 10, and we want to finish better than that if we can.”

Kahne is getting hot at the right time. He has three top-10 finishes in his last four races after three finishes in a row of 25th or worse.

“That’s something we had to do, get top 10s and get consistent and finish all the races,” Kahne said. “We were trying to do that earlier, but we kept having little problems.”

One of the problems was Tony Stewart, who wrecked him earlier this year at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway and last month at Chicagoland Speedway. Kahne had a top-five car at Darlington and was in the lead at the time of the wreck at Chicagoland.

Although typically quiet, Kahne became quite vocal at Chicagoland, as did crew chief Tommy Baldwin who was fined $10,000 for inciting a confrontation with Stewart’s crew. They were upset because the 36th place finish kept Kahne from being in the top 10 now.

Only recently did the two make up.

“Tony is a good guy who has helped me out a lot over the years with getting to where I am now,” Kahne said.

Kahne has followed the career path of Stewart, Newman and Jeff Gordon, winning the United States Auto Club open-wheel series before jumping to NASCAR.

It wasn’t by accident. As a 17-year-old in high school, Kahne devised a five-year plan in which he reached NASCAR. He was right on schedule, making it to the Busch Series in 2002.

Matt Kenseth, the 2003 points champion, saw Kahne’s potential during the Busch Series.

“I thought if he could get in the right stuff he could do good,” he said.

Kahne got in the right stuff, taking over the Bill Elliott car that finished strong last season. After a 41st-place showing in the opener at Daytona, he went second, second and third.

After a second-place finish at Texas, where he led a race-best 148 laps, he had three seconds in seven starts.

“That was probably the most impressive so far this season with what we’ve done,” Kahne said.

Kahne added a fourth second-place finish at Michigan to move within one of the five second-place finishes Newman had during his rookie season of 2002.

But finishing second isn’t Kahne’s goal. In 1996 the Enumclaw, Wash., native visited Victory Lane 11 times to win the Hannigan Speedway championship and Northwest mini-sprint car championship.

In 1998, he won 12 times in his first season in full-size sprint cars.

“We’d love to win a race,” Kahne said. “We just want to keep our momentum rolling and keep our team excited.”

Kahne admits his quick rise in popularity came as a surprise. But he doesn’t let it go to his head, and he stays so busy that he doesn’t have time for a girlfriend.

“I had one for about five months not too long ago, but it got complicated,” he recently told a reporter during a trip to Seattle, where he threw out the first pitch at a Mariners baseball game.

Such focus is a big reason Kahne is in this position. Seldom does he panic, as was the case two weeks ago when he got into the wall early and lost a lap at the Brickyard 400.

“All we’ve got to do is get out in front of Gordon, and we’ll be fine,” Kahne said over his radio, knowing he eventually could get back on the lead lap with the “Lucky Dog” rule.

Kahne ultimately lost two laps before rallying for the fourth place.

Kahne gives much of the credit for his success to Baldwin and Elliott, although he has talked to Elliott less as the season has progressed.

“He says a lot of things that keep me calm, and I’ll race as hard as I can until it’s over,” he said of Baldwin.

Kahne’s ultimate goal is winning a championship, which is why he’s considering putting his Busch ride aside next season to focus totally on the Cup.

Winning the rookie of the year honor would be a good place to start. Since 1979, Dale Earnhardt (1979), Rusty Wallace (1984), Alan Kulwicki (1986), Jeff Gordon (1993), Tony Sewart (1999) and Matt Kenseth (2000) won rookie of the year honors and went on to win a Nextel Cup Championship.

Kahne hasn’t ruled out winning both honors in the same year.

“I would hope by the end of the season if we’re in the chase we’re ready to win,” Kahne said. “This team is not a rookie team. A lot of it is Bill Elliott’s from last year.

“They’ve got a rookie driver, but other than that they’ve definitely got a team that can win the championship or run in the top 10 or five pretty easily.”