Retired NASCAR Cup Series driver Kasey Kahne, winner of 18 races, will return to the track Saturday for the Xfinity Series race at Rockingham.

Thursday, after all, was a celebration of the day before Rockingham Speedway officially made its return to the NASCAR schedule. The town of Rockingham hosted “Thunderfest” — a block party filled to the brim with families and balloons and music and old cars — all because NASCAR, at long last, was coming back to the famed 1.017-mile oval.

They said it in 2018, when a man nearly no one in Richmond County had heard of bought the dilapidated Rockingham Speedway and promised a resurrection. They said it three years later, when North Carolina government officials set aside $50 million to do much-needed work on the Tar Heel State's big three racetracks.