Eldora Speedway was built in 1954 by Earl Baltes, a prominent local bandleader with no previous racing experience, born on 27 April 1921 in nearby Versailles, Ohio. Baltes had stumbled onto a race at New Bremen Speedway and was impressed enough by the crowd to build his own track. Two years before opening the speedway, he had purchased the Eldora Ballroom from "Ma" Shoes, offering weekly dances and musical performances; he curtailed those performances as the track grew more successful.
The circuit opened as a quarter-mile in 1954. Baltes expanded it to three-eighths-mile in 1956 and to the present half-mile length in 1958 — the standard required by the United States Auto Club (USAC) for national championship events featuring Indianapolis 500 stars.
Eldora first hosted USAC sprint cars in 1962 and quickly became a favourite venue for the series. In August 1965, Orville Yeadon won the first Eldora 500, a 500-lap sprint car race featuring 33 cars. Larry Cannon won the following year's Eldora 500, and Don Nordhorn won the final running in 1967.
In 1971, Baltes held the inaugural World 100, offering an unprecedented $4,000 purse to the winner, which Bruce Gould claimed. The event is widely regarded as the birth of the modern dirt late model form of racing. Baltes promised to raise the winner's share by $1,000 every year, and the World 100 subsequently grew into the largest attended event of each Eldora season.
When the World of Outlaws sprint car series launched in 1978, Baltes recognised its promotional potential and booked events at Eldora. In October of that year, Eldora hosted the WoO season finale, where Steve Kinser captured the inaugural World of Outlaws championship and was proclaimed "King of the Outlaws." Eldora became a mainstay venue on the WoO circuit.
In 1984, Baltes announced the $50,000-to-win Kings Royal sprint car race, which grew into a three-day event offering over $385,000 in prize money.
In 2001, Baltes held the "Eldora Million," offering a $1 million prize to the winner — still the richest short-track race in history. Donnie Moran won the event and was dubbed "the Million Dollar Man."
Tony Stewart, a three-time NASCAR Cup Series champion, purchased the speedway from Baltes in late 2004. Upon retirement, the state of Ohio honoured Baltes by renaming Highway 118 "Earl Baltes National Highway."
The World 100 is a 100-lap dirt late model race run traditionally on the weekend following Labor Day. Billy Moyer leads all drivers with six World 100 championships. Donnie Moran has won four times; Larry Moore, Jeff Purvis, and Scott Bloomquist each have three wins.
The Dirt Late Model Dream is a 100-lap race run annually every June since 1994 and currently sanctioned by the World Racing Group, with a winner's prize of $100,000. Scott Bloomquist holds the record for most Dream victories with eight wins. The 2001 running was replaced by the Eldora Million, which paid $1,000,000 to winner Donnie Moran. In 2020, the event ran behind closed doors as the "Dirt Late Model Stream Invitational" due to the COVID-19 pandemic, paying $50,000 via iPPV with no spectators. Jonathan Davenport won four consecutive Dream events from 2022 to 2025.
The Kings Royal is one of the largest sprint car races in America, sanctioned by the World of Outlaws Sprint Car series and typically run in July. The winner's share stood at $50,000 for many years before increasing to $175,000 in 2019.
The Historical Big One was a sprint car race paying $100,000 to win — unprecedented for sprint car racing at the time — held from 1993 to 2003. The race returned in 2022 as part of Kings Royal week; the 2023 edition was rebranded as the Eldora Million with a $1,002,023 winner's prize.
Longtime USAC official Johnny Vance approached Baltes in 1980 about an event featuring all four USAC divisions in a single show. The resulting 4-Crown Nationals debuted in 1981, featuring the USAC National Midget Series, National Sprint Car Championship, Silver Crown Series, and a stock car division. Jack Hewitt and Kyle Larson each swept the three USAC divisions in a single night at this event.
From 2005 to 2012, Tony Stewart added the Prelude to the Dream, a charity race featuring visiting NASCAR drivers in borrowed UMP Late Models. Kenny Wallace won the inaugural running. Carl Edwards won the 2007 edition, defeating Kyle Busch and Jeff Gordon. In 2008, Stewart's Tony Stewart Foundation donated $1,000,000 to Victory Junction Gang Camps after Stewart won the race. Jimmie Johnson won the 2010 Prelude, and Kyle Busch won the final 2012 edition before the event was replaced by the Eldora Dirt Derby.
On 24 July 2013, Eldora hosted the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series "Mudsummer Classic." Austin Dillon, the 2011 truck series champion, won the inaugural event driving the No. 39 truck, beating Kyle Larson, Ryan Newman, Joey Coulter, and Brendan Gaughan. The Eldora Dirt Derby ran from 2013 to 2019 before being removed from the Truck Series schedule in 2021 following cancellation in 2020 due to COVID-19 pandemic restrictions.
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