Interest in a Columbia-area racetrack developed in the years immediately following World War II. An initial proposal to build between Columbia Airport and South Congaree was abandoned when landowners raised their prices upon learning of the plan. Officials then secured a site off Highway 321, approximately four miles from Columbia, purchasing the property from Sellers and Son Holding Company. The half-mile track was constructed in 1948, and the first race — a 100-lap event for modified cars — took place on Sunday, 25 April 1948 with approximately 10,000 spectators in attendance.
The racing surface at Columbia Speedway was a carefully engineered mixture of clay and sand. Before each event, track preparer Ben Harrison poured rock salt into the surface, soaked it with water, and compacted it using a multi-tyre apparatus, a process that took 45 minutes. The result was a surface that kept cars sideways through the corners in the early laps but hardened to near-asphalt firmness by the race's midpoint, creating two completely different handling challenges in a single event. Richard Petty described it as "probably one of the hardest race tracks of any of them 'cause it was so slick and smooth. If you could get around Columbia, you could get around any race track."
Thursday nights became the premier racing occasion at Columbia Speedway when the Grand National Series, the predecessor to the modern NASCAR Cup Series, began staging an annual race there in 1951. Those events drew close to 6,000 fans — more than triple the attendance for a standard club night — to see drivers including Lee Petty, Tim Flock, and Buck Baker.
According to Columbia Speedway historian Jim Seay, the track was the site of numerous motorsport firsts. It hosted the first night race in 1948, and witnessed the first NASCAR victory by a Chevrolet automobile during the 1950s. In 1958, Columbia became the first track at which a young Richard Petty competed, when he made his debut in a NASCAR Convertible race, qualifying thirteenth and finishing sixth. The following year, 1959, Petty returned and won his first career NASCAR victory at the track, driving a Plymouth convertible. Over the thirteen years he raced at Columbia Speedway, Petty visited victory lane seven times in Grand National competition, more than any other driver.
South Carolina native Cotton Owens, considered among the fifty greatest drivers in NASCAR history, also won two races at Columbia driving a Pontiac during the 1961 season.
The track additionally hosted eight NASCAR Convertible Series races between 1956 and 1959 — with Richard Petty scoring his lone win in that series at Columbia — and four NASCAR Grand National East Series events.
Among Columbia Speedway's most historically significant moments were the two races held in April and August 1970, which constituted two of the final three NASCAR Grand National events ever staged on a dirt surface. These races placed Columbia at the centre of a pivotal transition in the sport's history as NASCAR moved definitively toward asphalt. The track was paved before hosting its final two Grand National races in 1971, after which it was removed from the premier series schedule.
The paving, intended to keep Columbia competitive with larger venues, ultimately accelerated its decline. The narrower paved surface produced significantly higher speeds and more frequent accidents than the wider dirt configuration had. Attendance continued to fall as NASCAR's commercial ambitions drew the series toward larger markets such as Charlotte and Atlanta. The speedway was shut down in 1975 after owner Charles Sellers, whose commercial construction business had grown too demanding, was no longer able to operate the track on a part-time basis.
The property lay dormant for more than three decades. In 2008, Jeff Gilder of Racersreunion.com approached Sellers, leading to a community-led effort to reclaim the site. Volunteers cleared brush, demolished two dilapidated restroom buildings, refurbished the ticket booth, and installed safety infrastructure. Local construction companies donated earth-moving equipment to remove a large dirt mound blocking the ticket booth entrance; one company provided materials and labour for an aluminium flag stand at the start-finish line.
The First Annual Historic Columbia Speedway Spring Festival was held on 25 April 2009 and drew more than 25,000 fans from seventeen states. A second annual event followed in April 2010. The site has since operated as an outdoor events facility, the racing surface remaining intact as a walkable historical artefact, and has hosted car shows, concerts, and community events in addition to the annual reunion gatherings.
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