The track was built at the Naples fairgrounds, using natural topography — a hillside that formed the basis of the grandstand without the need for artificial banking. The soil composition, a mixture of sand and clay, produced a fast surface; the facility was described at the time as one of the fastest tracks in Western New York. The half-mile oval configuration gave it enough length to develop speed across a compact footprint.
Promoter Don Cleveland opened the track in 1949, paying each competing car $10 to race as an incentive to build the field. Regular competitors included Bob Schwingle and the Clawson brothers. The format drew steady audiences through the 1949 and 1950 seasons.
Sunday afternoon racing sessions created friction with the surrounding community. The combination of noise, dust, and traffic generated complaints from Naples residents, and the scheduling of events on Sundays brought the operation into conflict with New York State Blue Laws — legislation dating to 1788 that restricted commercial and recreational activities on the Sabbath. Stock car racing was not among the permitted Sunday activities under the existing law.
Cleveland was arrested in June 1951 and again in September of that year for violating the Sunday Blue Law. He contested both charges, intending to use his prosecutions as test cases in a broader legal challenge to the law. He was found not guilty by a jury in both instances. In parallel, Cleveland pursued an injunction through the New York State Supreme Court to prohibit police from enforcing the Blue Law against his operation. The court denied the injunction, but Cleveland's sustained legal campaign had a wider effect: the New York State legislature subsequently amended the Sunday Blue Laws to lift restrictions on stock car racing, circuses, hunting, and golf, instead empowering local communities to authorise or prohibit those activities individually.
The practical outcome for Naples was unfavourable. The Town of Naples considered an ordinance in the spring of 1952 that would have permitted Cleveland to resume speedway operations, but refused to pass it. With no local authorisation available, racing at Naples Speedway did not resume, and the track closed permanently after its 1951 season.
Dutch Hoag, who became a significant figure in northeastern American short-track racing, began his career at Naples Speedway during its brief operational period.
Naples Speedway is documented in Ford Easton's book Stock Car Racing in the '50s, a 230-page account covering 48 different tracks across the region that sold approximately 2,400 copies, including sales to readers in Europe. The book preserves the speedway's history alongside the broader network of short-track operations that defined upstate New York racing during the postwar decade.