A method for automatically controlling vehicle speeds of a track-based work vehicle (10) may generally include receiving, with a computing device, one or more signals associated with an operating temperature for a track component of a track assembly (12, 14) of the track-based work vehicle (10), comparing, with the computing device, the operating temperature for the track component to a predetermined temperature threshold defined for the track component and automatically limiting, with the computing device, a vehicle speed of the track-based work vehicle (10) when the operating temperature for the track component exceeds the predetermined temperature threshold.