More To Prove For Akinori Ogata At New Hampshire Motor Speedway

More To Prove For Akinori Ogata At New Hampshire Motor Speedway

Topics: Akinori Ogata, Granite State 100

More To Prove For Akinori Ogata At New Hampshire Motor Speedway

Chris Knight
Knight Motorsports Management
July 9, 2014

Akinori Ogata, driver of the No. 56 ENEOS Toyota Camry in NASCAR K&N Pro Series East (NKPSE) competition for Akinori Performance.

LONDON, New Hampshire (July 9, 2014) - - In his young NASCAR K&N Pro Series East (NKNPSE) career, ENEOS Racing driver Akinori Ogata (@AkinoriOgata) considers New Hampshire Motor Speedway one of his favorite tracks on the tour.

On Friday evening in the running of the Granite State 100, he wants to show why. Again.

Last year, Ogata, 40, climbed from his 30th place starting position to record his career-best finish on the K&N Pro Series East tour, taking the checkered flag in 16th on the lead lap.

“I have good memories of New Hampshire,” offered Ogata, driver of the No. 56 ENEOS Toyota Camry. “We didn’t start the weekend like we wanted to, but I drove hard and great work by our team brought a good finish for us and ENEOS.”

Ogata is aiming to make his third career-start at the 1.058-mile slightly-banked asphalt oval, making the flat track one of his most familiar places on the KNKPSE tour.

In his eyes too, the 10th race on the 2014 schedule couldn’t come at a better time for Ogata and his team.

Akinori Performance has run two races this season and while both races showed promise of yielding a good finish, bad luck struck them and instead brought disappointment. On Friday, however, Ogata wants to turn his season around and deliver another strong finish for sponsor ENEOS.

“ENEOS has stuck with us through some tough times this season,” Ogata added. “That’s important to me, because they believe in me and our race team. We’ve made some progress, but there is still work to done and I’m determined to duplicate, if not better our run in the No. 56 ENEOS Toyota Camry on Friday night.”

For the third time this season, Ogata, now a North Carolina native is looking forward to working with crew chief Dale Quarterly. Since joining the team at the beginning of the year, Ogata describes how he’s built his confidence behind the wheel, but also made him feel more comfortable behind the wheel.

“Dale has been so instrumental to me and our small team’s little successes this year,” Ogata sounded. “We didn’t make the race at Bristol, but since then we’ve worked hard to better our race team and slowly, we’ve made steady progress. This weekend, we hope to keep going in the right direction.

“Of course, Richmond and Five Flags didn’t pan out as well as we hoped, but we’ve been able to take some experience away from both of those places and while the tracks are completely different from themselves and even New Hampshire, I’m really excited about racing on Friday night.”

In addition to ENEOS, WPC, MOONEYES and WRD will serve as associate marketing partners for the 10th race of the 2014 NASCAR K&N Pro Series East season.

ENEOS is the brand name for products manufactured and sold by JX Nippon Oil & Energy Corp., the largest oil company in Japan. ENEOS products are the highest quality lubricants available in the marketplace today. These products use advanced additive and base oil technology, the result of joint engineering and research with all of the Japanese automotive manufactures. ENEOS lubricants provide exceptional performance, power and protection for a wide variety of applications including race cars, motorcycles and street automobiles.

Ogata has 11 career NKNPSE starts to his credit. He made his debut in 2012 at Gresham (Ga.) Motorsports Park, the site of his career-best finish of 15th after starting 26th. He also produced a 16th-place effort at New Hampshire Motor Speedway (NHMS) last year.

The Granite State 100 is set for Friday, July 11 from “The Magic Mile.” The 100-lap (105.8-mile) feature is scheduled to take the green flag shortly after 6:00 p.m. The race will be tape-delayed on FOX Sports 1 with an air date on Sunday, July 20 at 12:00 p.m. All times Eastern.

For more on Akinori Ogata, please visit AkinoriOgata.com.

Ogata tweets too, follow him @AkinoriOgata.

About ENEOS:

ENEOS is the corporate brand name of JX Nippon Oil & Energy Corporation, the largest oil company in Japan. ENEOS brand motor oil is developed to exceed the highest standards of the automotive industry. ENEOS product ranges from motor oil that offers optimal performance protection under the most extreme temperature variations, to ecologically friendly motor oil that provides superior fuel saving capacity. For more information please visit eneos.us.

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