The track was built as a dirt oval in 1952 and paved the following year in 1953. Before coming under the ownership of the Gore family, it operated under the name Longview Speedway. The drag strip at Old Dominion, when first opened in 1953, held the distinction of being the first officially sanctioned drag strip on the East Coast; it originally operated as a 1/8-mile dirt strip.
Old Dominion Speedway hosted NASCAR Grand National Series races in 1958 and then again from 1963 through 1966. The list of winners during those years reads as a who's who of early NASCAR: Frankie Schneider won the 1958 event, Richard Petty won in 1963 and again in 1965, Ned Jarrett took two victories in 1964, Junior Johnson won in 1965, and Elmo Langley claimed the 1966 race. Other NASCAR legends including Lee Petty, Ralph Earnhardt, Bobby Allison, Darrell Waltrip, and Lennie Pond also made appearances at the facility during its Grand National era.
In more recent decades, drivers such as Mark McFarland won multiple track championships at ODS, and Denny Hamlin raced there during his early career development. Several future USAR Hooters Pro Cup Series competitors, including Trevor Bayne and Jack Bailey, also made starts at Old Dominion.
Old Dominion Speedway holds a notable place in NASCAR history as the birthplace of the Late Model Stock Car division. Track promoter Dick Gore conceived the class that would become one of the fastest-growing divisions in NASCAR, a format that subsequently spread throughout the country and eventually evolved into what is now the NASCAR Xfinity Series. As Gore recalled, critics initially doubted the concept — "they said it would never work" — but the division proved enormously popular.
In 2006, Albert Anderson became the first African-American driver to win a race at Old Dominion Speedway, a milestone in the track's long history.
The 3/8-mile oval hosted Late Models, INEX Legends cars, Mini Modifieds, UCARSet Stocks, and Bandoleros as its core weekly divisions. The drag strip ran Friday night events and Wednesday Test and Tune sessions with classes including Super Pro, Foot Brake, Motorcycle, Quick 16, and Top Street 5.8. The speedway also hosted monster truck events, U.S. Drift-sanctioned drifting competitions, car shows, Virginia Sprint races, and Shenandoah Mini Cup events.
The track's premier annual event was known as "The Big One," held at season's end with the largest car counts, biggest purse, and the greatest spectator attendance of any race on the ODS calendar. The 2012 running of The Big One — won by Michael Hardin before a packed house — proved to be the final oval race ever held at Old Dominion Speedway.
Old Dominion Speedway closed in 2012. The motorsport complex that followed, Dominion Raceway, broke ground in 2013 at a new location in Thornburg, Virginia, and opened in 2016. That facility operates a 0.400-mile oval, a 2.000-mile road course, and a drag strip, carrying forward the regional motorsport tradition of Old Dominion under a new name and at a new site.