The track was built by Albert Miller and John Rose and opened on 6 July 1947, designed from the outset for midget car racing. Bill Lipkey purchased the facility in 1952. Ownership passed through several hands before the Evans family took over in 1994. The O'Connor family acquired the track in 2004 and immediately carried out a significant reconfiguration of the racing surface, converting it from a flat layout to its current wide semi-banked configuration. This change fundamentally altered the track's character, enabling higher corner speeds and a broader variety of competitive racing lines. Musco Sports Lighting was installed at the facility in 2017, upgrading its night-racing infrastructure for the weekly Sunday evening programme.
Kokomo Speedway runs weekly Sunday night racing through the summer months. Its calendar regularly features national touring series: Indiana Sprint Week, part of the USAC Sprint Car calendar, is among the most prominent annual visits. The World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series and the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series also appear at the track, as have the ARCA Series and USAC National Midgets at various points in its history. In the 1990s, ESPN's Thunder programme broadcast sprint car events from Kokomo during Indiana Sprint Week, giving the track national television exposure.
The marquee annual event is the Sprint Car Smackdown, held each August, which attracts national-calibre non-wing sprint car competitors and is considered one of the largest gatherings of non-wing sprint cars in the United States. The Kokomo Klash, held in October, is a multi-class event incorporating sprint cars, midget cars, late models, and modifieds into a single-day programme. The only winged USAC sprint car event in the track's history was run on 23 June 1991 and won by Kelly Kinser.
Bob Kinser holds the record for the most sprint car track championships at Kokomo, with eight titles accumulated between 1972 and 1980. Tony Elliott claimed seven track championships. Dave Darland holds the record for the most career feature wins in the track's history and also took four championships in 1987, 1991, 1993, and 1994. Shane Cottle won four championships in 2004, 2005, 2007, and 2011. Justin Grant won the title in 2017 and 2019.
Other sprint car champions in the track's recorded history include Cole Whitt (2009), Chris Windom (2010), and Bryan Clauson (2014). The champion list from 1963 onward reflects more than six decades of unbroken competitive sprint car racing at the venue.
Notable drivers who have competed at Kokomo Speedway include A.J. Foyt, Mario Andretti, Tony Stewart, Jeff Gordon, and Ryan Newman — a roster that reflects the track's position within the broader culture of Indiana open-wheel racing and its historical connections to the Indianapolis 500 talent pipeline.
One of the most significant chapters in Kokomo Speedway's recent history involves Bryan Clauson, who won the sprint car track championship in 2014 and had a close and well-documented association with the venue. Clauson was named track rookie of the year early in his association with Kokomo and maintained a practice of racing at the track on the same night as the Indianapolis 500, as part of an effort to compete in the maximum possible number of races in a single season.
Clauson died in August 2016 following injuries sustained in a USAC midget car race at Belleville High Banks in Kansas. In recognition of his record at Kokomo Speedway and his connection to the venue's community, the track renamed its victory lane "BC's Parked It Victory Lane" in his memory. The tribute has remained in place.
Kokomo Speedway's quarter-mile semi-banked dirt surface demands a specific and committed style of racing. The tight dimensions and banked corners leave little room for tentative approaches, rewarding drivers who carry maximum corner speed and time their passes with precision. Dave Darland's record win total at the track and Bob Kinser's eight championships are the two most significant individual achievements in its history. The track's long association with Indiana's open-wheel racing culture — including its connections to drivers who have made the step to Indianapolis — places it within the Midwestern dirt racing tradition that has served as one of American open-wheel racing's primary development pathways for more than seventy years.
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