The land on which Maple Grove Raceway sits was purchased in 1923 by Alfred and Edna Stauffer for a logging business. As parcels were cleared, the land was gradually developed. A swimming pool opened on the property in 1928, and by the 1930s a half-mile dirt oval called Brecknock Speedway was operating on the site, featuring sprint car racing. The oval closed in the 1940s and the land reverted to the Stauffer family.
In 1957, the Friendship Motorcycle Club received permission from Stauffer to run eighth-mile drag races on the property. To reduce rocks kicked up by motorcycles, Stauffer paved the starting line with concrete — considered a racing first. In 1960, a group of local racers from the Eastern Custom Car Association approached Stauffer about converting the site into a proper dragstrip.
Maple Grove Drag-O-Way opened in August 1962 as a nationally recognized racetrack. Carved from the terrain by John and Roy Stauffer, the track was a fifth of a mile long and 30 feet wide. In 1963 the track was widened by 10 feet and a dual-lane timer was installed. By 1964 the track had been extended to 4,000 feet long and 60 feet wide to allow quarter-mile racing.
Maple Grove Raceway's relationship with the NHRA defined much of its identity. The track entered the NHRA divisional program in 1966, left briefly for NASCAR sanction in 1967, and returned to the NHRA in 1969, receiving one of five Northeast Division World Championship Series events. The track was named NED Track of the Year multiple times throughout the 1970s and 1980s.
In 1984, the NHRA awarded Maple Grove a national event for 1985. The inaugural NHRA Nationals at the track drew top competitors and set the stage for a run of nearly continuous national-event hosting that lasted through 2025. Over that span, the event changed sponsors and names multiple times while remaining a calendar fixture in the Countdown to the Championship playoff portion of the season.
Notable performances at the NHRA Nationals include Cory McClenathan completing the first Top Fuel pass in the 4.7-second range in 1992, and Mike Dunn and Blaine Johnson recording the first side-by-side Top Fuel passes both breaking 300 miles per hour in 1994. In 2010, Matt Hagan set a national Funny Car record of 4.011 seconds at the track. Del Worsham set a Top Fuel national record of 3.735 seconds in 2011, and Antron Brown lowered the Top Fuel record to 3.701 in 2012.
Major facility improvements accompanied the growth of the Nationals event. Lighting was added in 1965, powered by a diesel plant used during construction of Baltimore's Harbor Tunnel. Electronic scoreboards were installed in 1981. The VIP hospitality tower, expanded grandstands, and a new track lighting system opened in 1989 alongside a Compulink timing and scoring system.
In 1991 a new concrete guardwall ran the full length of the track. In 2009 the track was extended to 4,075 feet, making it one of the ten longest in the nation. The launch pad was extended to 820 feet in 2010 when the track received a new surface. In 2015 the remaining asphalt was removed and replaced with concrete, making Maple Grove one of the only all-concrete quarter-mile tracks in the eastern United States.
Alfred Stauffer died in December 1965. His family continued operation until 1966, when Bob Eveland leased the facility. Mike Lewis became general manager in 1979 and president of Maple Grove Dragway, Inc. in 1980. George Case took over as vice president and general manager in 1989.
In 2019 the track was listed for sale at $8 million. In 2022, the Kenny Koretsky family became the new owners. In December 2025, the IHRA announced it would become the new owners, with plans to rename the venue Darana Raceway. Simultaneously, the NHRA announced it would no longer use Maple Grove for the Keystone Nationals, instead taking the national event to U.S. 131 Motorsports Park in Michigan beginning in 2026.
Maple Grove Raceway has run two long-standing grassroots programs. The Sunoco Race Fuels Money Trail crowns champions in Super, Pro, Street, and Top Bike eliminators; drivers from the Money Trail program have won 13 Summit Racing Series Northeast Division ET Finals championships. The Junior Drag Racing League for racers aged 8 to 17 has produced four NHRA Eastern Conference championships. Team Maple Grove holds 13 ET Finals team championships in the NHRA Northeast Division, more than any other track.