Joe Gibbs Racing Seeks Restraining Order Against Chris Gabehart
Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) requested a restraining order on Tuesday night to prevent former competition director Chris Gabehart from working for Spire Motorsports. In addition, JGR added Spire as a defendant in the lawsuit, accusing Gabehart of carrying out a “brazen plan to steal JGR’s most sensitive information”. The modification presented in the Western District of North Carolina requests that Gabehart be prevented from working for another NASCAR team in the same capacity he held at JGR for 18 months. The lawsuit alleges that Gabehart breached his contract and stole confidential trade secrets from the team when “his demands for additional authority were rejected by the owner of JGR.” JGR claims that Gabehart has caused over $8 million in damages to the company. In last week’s initial filing, JGR did not seek a court order to prevent Gabehart from working for Spire nor did it name Spire as a defendant in the lawsuit. Spire announced that it will respond to the modified filing on Wednesday. JGR was founded by Joe Gibbs in 1992 after winning three Super Bowls as the coach of the Washington football team. Gibbs is a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame and the NASCAR Hall of Fame and is currently 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. 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 second-best in the Cup during that period. The lawsuit claims that Gabehart, throughout the past season, wanted complete responsibility and control over all competition departments and requested of Joe Gibbs in a meeting on November 6, 2025, “carte blanche authority over all racing decisions.” The lawsuit says Gibbs denied the request and Gabehart said he wanted to leave the organization. In the course of negotiating a separation agreement, JGR alleges it learned that Gabehart had met with Spire Motorsports, leading the organization to conduct a forensic analysis of Gabehart’s laptop provided by the team.The modified presentation says that Gabehart has not worked for JGR since November 10, 2025, and turned in his laptop at that time. JGR alleges that it learned on February 11 that Gabehart planned to become Spire’s motorsports director, where he would be responsible for all of Spire’s race strategy and operations. JGR’s amended filing includes a February 9 employment termination letter with Gabehart. Spire co-owner Jeff Dickerson first confirmed that he had hired Gabehart last weekend at the Atlanta Motor Speedway. JGR alleges that Gabehart knew his actions in accessing JGR’s materials were illegal and that he took intentional steps to avoid detection and conceal his digital footprint. The modification states that Gabehart had knowledge of the forensic process due to another 2024 incident in which a former JGR employee illegally took information to a rival team. While that 2024 incident is widely known throughout the industry, JGR has never publicly acknowledged it and did not take legal action against that former employee. Cary Davis, the lawyer representing Gabehart, has said he cannot comment on the lawsuit. Gabehart, on social media last week, called the allegations “frivolous and retaliatory” and said that an outside expert had examined his laptop, cell phone, and Google Drive and “found no evidence to support the unfounded allegations in the JGR lawsuit. We even offered JGR the opportunity to conduct a similar review of Spire’s systems. JGR rejected that offer and, instead, filed this spiteful lawsuit.”“The results were shocking,” the lawsuit states, alleging that Google searches for Spire were found in October and November of last year, folders titled “Spire” and “Previous Configurations”, and more than a dozen images of JGR files containing confidential information and trade secrets.
Joe Gibbs Racing
