In his native Kanagawa, Japan, Ogata was a race-winning rider in Motocross, a sport he participated in from age 14. At age 26, he shifted from Motocross to Dirt Midget racing, becoming a winning driver at Twin Ring Motegi. Ogata, who enjoyed watching NASCAR on television, opened a NASCAR hobby shop near Tokyo in 1997, but he soon felt compelled to link Japan and America’s top form of auto racing more directly. While on his honeymoon in the United States., he realized that it was time to pursue his “American Dream” of racing in the Daytona 500 a reality.

In 2010, he made the 6,890-mile journey to Mooresville, N.C., the hub of NASCAR, to make the competitive jump from Dirt Midget racing to Stock Car racing. Ogata’s first foray into American racing began in the NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series racing late model stock cars at Hickory (N.C.) Motor Speedway. Racing at Hickory allowed him to learn his race craft and prepared him for his NASCAR K&N Pro Series East debut in 2012. Across 12 starts in three years, Ogata scored five top-20 finishes with a best finish of 16th at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. After three years in the K&N Pro series, he made his NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series debut at Phoenix (Ariz.) Raceway for Win-Tron Racing in 2014. In 2018, Ogata returned to Phoenix to make his NASCAR Xfinity Series debut with MBM Motorsports.

While working to make his dream of racing in the Daytona 500 a reality, Ogata has made at least one start in the Truck Series each season and continues to race at Hickory in the limited late model class. Ogata is currently the only Japanese winner in NASCAR.