A federal judge ruled on Monday that Chris Gabehart, former competition director for Joe Gibbs Racing, can continue working for Spire Motorsports, but not in the same role he held with his former NASCAR team. Gabehart currently serves as the director of motorsports at Spire, a position that encompasses most of the racing properties of the parent company TWG Global. His first public appearance as a Spire employee was the weekend at the IndyCar event in St. Petersburg, Florida. Gabehart will be able to attend this weekend’s race at Phoenix Raceway, where both NASCAR and IndyCar will compete. TWG Motorsports also owns IndyCar’s Andretti Global. The decision on Monday by U.S. District Court Judge Susan C. Rodriguez in the Western District of North Carolina followed her order that both parties attempt to reach a resolution after Friday’s hearing on JGR’s request for a restraining order to prevent Gabehart from working for Spire. The judge set March 16 as the date for a full hearing regarding Gabehart’s employment. Another complaint from JGR accusing Gabehart of stealing team data to give to Spire has not yet been addressed. JGR claims that Gabehart caused over $8 million in damages by copying team files and configurations, and Spire has been named as a defendant. On Monday, Rodriguez ordered Gabehart to return all data and materials he has from JGR to the team owned by Joe Gibbs, who founded the NASCAR organization in 1992 after winning three Super Bowls as the Washington football coach. Gibbs is a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame and the NASCAR Hall of Fame and is now co-owner of JGR with his daughter-in-law, Heather. The team fields Cup cars for Christopher Bell, Chase Briscoe, Ty Gibbs, and Denny Hamlin.
Spire already has an alliance with Hendrick Motorsports, an agreement that gives the team access to Hendrick’s data. Hendrick is the winningest team in NASCAR history. Spire has Cup cars for Carson Hocevar, Michael McDowell, and Daniel Suarez, as well as a Truck Series team. JGR does not have a Truck Series team. Gibbs and his daughter-in-law were not in court on Monday for the 10-minute procedure. They did attend last Friday’s hearing.Spire takes trade secrets very seriously, and we are many things, but not hypocrites. We don’t want anything from anyone, apart from Hendrick, obviously. We are content. Facts are facts and I don’t hold a grudge against JGR.
Jeff Dickerson, co-owner of Spire
Gabehart joined JGR in 2012 as an engineer, rose to crew chief for Hamlin, and became competition director before the 2025 season. Gabehart spent six seasons as Hamlin’s crew chief, and the duo won 22 Cup races, two of which were the Daytona 500, and qualified for the championship final three times. Hamlin finished fifth or better in six seasons under Gabehart’s direction, while Hamlin’s wins and laps led were the second-best in the Cup during that period. Gabehart admitted in court that he took photos on his phone of an Excel file from JGR and other projects in which he had participated in their development. But Gabehart insisted that a forensic audit showed that the information was never shared with any other organization. Gabehart claims that his 13 years at JGR began to crumble when he was pressured last season to be crew chief for Ty Gibbs, the grandson of the team owner, despite having been promoted to director of competition at the end of 2024.We are pleased with today’s ruling from the United States District Court for the Western District of North Carolina, which issued a temporary restraining order to enforce the terms of our contract with Chris Gabehart. We will continue the legal process to protect our information and fight for what is right for our racing team, our employees, and our partners.
JGR Statement
Gabehart said from the IndyCar race on Saturday that the dispute is not about being pressured to be Ty Gibbs’ crew chief, to whom Gabehart said the same standard did not apply as to the other drivers. He said he feels bad about the publicity that his dispute has caused NASCAR and the Gibbs family, who employed him for 13 seasons.I notified JGR that the job was not, at all, as advertised. I was promised a COO-type role that would oversee all competitive operations with autonomy to lead. Instead, I found myself constantly intertwined with Coach Gibbs, senior JGR executives, and family members when making even routine competition decisions, a dysfunctional organizational structure that I could not continue in.
Gabehart
Deep down, I think Ty is a very good person who has been dealt a very hard hand in the last three years, both he and his family, and I feel very bad about that.
Gabehart
