🇺🇸 Akinori Ogata

Akinori Ogata is a semi-professional stock car racing driver competing at the level of competitive club racing; his Racer Rating of 3,112 places him in the semi-professional band, where drivers win in pro-am and one-make classes and run mid-pack among full professionals. Ogata has raced part-time in NASCAR's national series, with 21 starts across the Truck and Xfinity series between 2018 and 2025, finishing on average in 31st place. He has not won a race or secured a podium in any series on record. His most recent activity came in the 2024 Xfinity Series, where he started three rounds and finished 54th.[1]

Ogata's record against the field reveals a driver consistently outpaced by the stronger competitors in these series. In his most frequent head-to-head matchups, he finished behind established and elite-level rivals; against Spencer Boyd, a professional-level driver, he won just two of thirteen meetings; against Sheldon Creed and Chandler Smith, both elite professionals, he finished ahead only twice in twelve and twelve races respectively; and against Austin Hill, champion of the 2020 Truck Series, he managed one finish ahead across thirteen shared starts. Notably, Ogata has occasionally finished ahead of much stronger drivers in individual races, including elite professionals Ty Gibbs and William Byron and multiple-time Truck Series champion Corey Heim, though these instances were isolated results rather than reflections of a competitive pattern.[2]

Ogata continues to race part-time in NASCAR's Truck Series, operating under his own team banner, Akinori Performance. His career reflects that of a part-time competitor in a highly professional field, where his appearances are infrequent and his results place him well outside the competitive window at this level.