Joe Gibbs Racing adds to lawsuit against Chris Gabehart, Spire

Late last week, the judge overseeing the Joe Gibbs Racing v Chris Gabehart and Spire Motorsports lawsuit approved a motion from the plaintiffs to refile its legal complaints and completed that process on Monday afternoon.

The core tenets of the lawsuit remain the same.

Joe Gibbs Racing alleges that Chris Gabehart, who worked at the organization from 2012 to 2025 as an engineer, crew chief and competition director, misappropriated trade secrets for the benefits of his new employer, Spire.

Joe Gibbs Racing has called it a ‘short cut’ to running near the front of the field, with Spire having won two races this season.

Further, JGR has argued in court and within legal filings that Gabehart breached his contract in how he left for Spire and what work in performs for the latter as the organization’s Chief Motorsports Officer. This is a role that JGR claims is a deceptive front to hide that Gabehart is performing duties similar to what he most recently performed as their competition director.

That would be another breach of the non-compete agreement.

For their part, Gabehart and Spire have continued to argue in court that no trade secreted information was transferred from the longtime engineer to the team co-owned by Jeff Dickerson and TWG Global. The court has concluded definitively that Gabehart misappropriated numerous trade secrets as Gabehart accessed JGR files, setup sheets and financial information, taking pictures of others on his personal cell phone, placing them on his personal Google drive.

Gabehart says, after JGR found out through a forensic analysis of his devices, that he deleted and otherwise returned all trade secrets to Joe Gibbs Racing with the latter still arguing in court that it believes Spire is using it in the NASCAR Cup Series this season.

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This second amended complaint largely reads identical to the one that came before it, but there are several new additions.

The first notable addition is a claim from Joe Gibbs Racing that states it has intel from one Spire employee as detailed to his counterpart at JGR that Gabehart is participating and leading competition meetings at Spire, which it believes is a violation of their non-compete agreement.

The below italicized excerpts are from the revised lawsuit.

A Spire employee has informed a JGR employee that Gabehart is in charge of and/or significantly participating in Spire’s competition strategy and decisions. Employees were instructed not to discuss the fact Gabehart is leading and/or participating in Spire’s competition and strategy decision-making process outside of Spire. There is no legal justification for advising its employees to conceal the true nature of Gabehart’s services. Spire is aware that Gabehart leading and/or participating in Spire’s competition strategy and decision-making violates his noncompete obligations set forth in the Agreement.

Upon information and belief, Spire employees who support competition efforts work with Gabehart on competition strategy and decisions. Spire is aware that Gabehart leading Spire’s competition strategy and decisions-making violates his noncompete obligations set forth in the Agreement.

Spire has added a new complaint in its revised lawsuit that the titled of Chief Motorsports Officer is in itself an effort to provide cover that Gabehart is effectively doing what he did at Gibbs while serving as competition director, which it believes is a violation of their non-compete agreement.

Again, the italicized below is taken from the revised lawsuit.

Knowing the Agreement contained noncompete, non-solicitation, and confidentiality provisions preventing Gabehart from, among other things, providing Spire with the same or similar services he provided JGR within the last year, Spire created a bespoke role for Gabehart which required him to perform the same or similar services he provided JGR in the prior year. Spire hired him to that role and has continuously induced Gabehart to violate his noncompete and confidentiality obligations by permitting and/or requiring him to perform the same or similar services he provided JGR in the prior year at least the March 22, 2026 Goodyear 400 and the April 12, 2026 Food City 500, including during Spire’s preparation for those races in the days leading up to each race.

Spire hired Gabehart so Gabehart could provide it with the same services he provided JGR in the prior year. Spire’s sole motive in creating the specific role it created for Gabehart was deception. In particular, Spire created a role that gives the appearance of Gabehart providing significant services for non-NASCAR Cup Series competition, when that was not Spire’s intent for his services, nor on information and belief what he is doing. The deceptive title was created solely to attempt to give a plausible explanation for Gabehart to be present at NASCAR Cup Series events at times and in places where he can violate his restrictive covenant by advising on competition in a way that is very difficult for an outsider to detect or prove. There is no legal justification for this deceptive conduct.