Planning for the track began in 1964 when Darlington Raceway founder Harold Brasington and businessman Bill Land announced a $250,000 project on 175 acres near the intersection of U.S. Route 1 and North Carolina Highway 177. Attorney Elsie Webb led a group of eleven investors who financed the approximately $1 million construction cost. The facility opened on October 31, 1965 with the American 500, a NASCAR Grand National Series race won by Curtis Turner. Early testing sessions saw David Pearson set a world record lap speed for mile ovals.
The track ran flat at one mile initially. In 1969 the surface was reconfigured to its current dimensions — banking at 22 degrees in turns one and two, 25 degrees in turns three and four, and 8 degrees on the straights — and the measured length became 0.94 miles. The track was paved twice more in the late 1960s to correct rough surface issues caused by rainy weather during the first repave. In 1977 an infield road course was added, and the same year a controversial sealant application instead of a full repave prompted driver complaints after making the surface dangerously slippery.
Elsie Webb served as president until her death in 1972 from ulcer surgery complications. NASCAR team owner and peach farmer L. G. DeWitt took over and led the facility through steady but slow development until his death in October 1990. His daughter Joyce DeWitt Wilson eventually assumed the presidency.
By the mid-1990s the facility ranked among the lowest-attended stops on the Cup Series schedule. In 1995, Bruton Smith of Speedway Motorsports Inc. bought roughly 24 percent of the facility, while Roger Penske acquired a smaller stake. What followed was a protracted and litigated bidding war: Smith offered $48.3 million, Penske countered, Smith raised to $72 million, but Carrie DeWitt — the majority stockholder — feared NWS's fate given what Smith had done to North Wilkesboro Speedway. She ultimately sold to Penske, whose Penske Motorsports officially took control in late 1997.
Penske renamed the facility North Carolina Speedway in 1998 and rebuilt the backstretch grandstand to increase seating capacity to 60,122. In 1999, Penske Motorsports merged with the France family's International Speedway Corporation.
By 2003 the track had lost one of its two annual Cup Series dates, which moved to Darlington Raceway. The Ferko lawsuit — filed by an SMI minority shareholder alleging that NASCAR had reneged on a commitment to give Texas Motor Speedway a second Cup date — put the track's remaining date in jeopardy. When the lawsuit settled in May 2004, NASCAR transferred the final Rockingham date to Texas Motor Speedway. ISC sold the facility to Speedway Motorsports for $100.4 million, and Cup racing at Rockingham ended.
SMI showed no interest in racing at the track. After putting it up for auction in 2007, NASCAR driver Andy Hillenburg won the bid for $4.4 million. He renamed the facility Rockingham Speedway, added ARCA and later Truck Series racing, and constructed "Little Rock," a half-mile replica of Martinsville Speedway outside the main oval. Financial difficulties forced a second closure in 2013 and the facility fell into foreclosure proceedings.
In August 2018, a group of investors led by Dan Lovenheim purchased Rockingham Speedway for $2.8 million. Lovenheim pursued state funding and received $9 million through a 2021 North Carolina COVID-19 relief package. The main oval was repaved between October and December 2022, with the track remeasured at 0.94 miles afterward. Grandstand and catchfence renovations were completed by mid-2023. NASCAR announced a return for 2025, bringing Xfinity and Truck Series events back to the facility.
On December 31, 2025, IHRA announced its purchase of the facility for an undisclosed price, with plans for expanded racing events and continued amenity improvements.
The main oval features a 1.5-mile road course variant incorporating the infield, added in 1977. Little Rock, the Martinsville-replica half-mile oval, sits outside the main track's footprint. As of 2012 the facility had a rated capacity of 32,000, down significantly from its 60,000-seat peak in the late 1990s.
The track has also hosted major music festivals throughout its history, most notably the 1972 Peach Tree Celebration rock festival drawing approximately 70,000 attendees, and has been used for film production including Talladega Nights and Days of Thunder.