Joe Gibbs Racing Sues Chris Gabehart for Alleged Theft of Confidential Information
Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) filed a lawsuit on Thursday against its former competition director, Chris Gabehart, accusing him of orchestrating a plan to steal sensitive information from the team for the benefit of Spire Motorsports, a rival NASCAR team.
The lawsuit, filed in the Western District of North Carolina, alleges that Gabehart violated his contract and stole confidential trade secrets from the team. This occurred after “his demands for greater authority were rejected by the owner of JGR.” Damages to JGR are estimated to exceed $8 million.
JGR’s foundation dates back to 1992, established by Joe Gibbs after his successes as an American football coach, where he won three Super Bowls. Gibbs, a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame and the NASCAR Hall of Fame, currently co-manages JGR with his daughter-in-law, Heather. The team competes with renowned drivers.
Christopher Bell
Chase Briscoe
Ty Gibbs
Denny Hamlin
Gabehart, who joined JGR in 2012 as an engineer, rose to become Hamlin’s crew chief and, eventually, director of competition before the 2025 season. In this position, he was responsible for all competitive aspects of the team and had access to proprietary information from JGR.The lawsuit states that Gabehart sought to have total control over all competition departments during the past season. In a meeting on November 6, 2025, he requested from Joe Gibbs “total authority over all race decisions.” Gibbs denied the request, and Gabehart expressed his intention to leave the organization.
During the negotiations for his departure, JGR discovered that Gabehart had met with Spire Motorsports, which led the team to conduct a forensic analysis of the laptop provided to Gabehart. The results were surprising, including Google searches about Spire, folders named “Spire” and “Previous Configurations”, and several images of JGR files with confidential information.
JGR alleges that Gabehart knew his actions were illegal and took steps to hide his digital footprint. Gabehart turned over his laptop on November 10 and has not worked for JGR since then.
The lawsuit claims that Gabehart received an offer from Spire on November 13 and met with Spire co-owner Jeff Dickerson on December 2. JGR also alleges that Gabehart denied having spoken with Spire about employment.
Instead of this, JGR asserts that Gabehart was actively recruiting JGR employees to join Spire, and at least one employee has already moved. Spire has not yet announced Gabehart’s hiring.
Cary Davis, Gabehart’s lawyer, has not commented on the lawsuit. Gabehart has 21 days to respond to JGR’s filing.
