By Neha Dwivedi, Staff Writer and Jerry Jordan, Editor
In a lawsuit filed this past week by Joe Gibbs Racing, the team levied allegations against its former crew chief and competition director, Chris Gabehart, claiming he walked off with proprietary data and planned to carry it across the garage to Spire Motorsports.
The two sides split in December 2025 without doors slamming but talk soon spread that Gabehart could land at Spire. Gabehart served as Denny Hamlin’s crew chief from 2019 to 2024, steering the No. 11 team to 22 wins in six seasons. In 2025, he moved upstairs into a competition role, acting as counsel for Ty Gibbs.
According to the contract attached to the complaint, JGR is seeking relief that could run north of $8 million. The team also wants a cease-and-desist order to block Gabehart from using or disclosing JGR’s trade secrets and to compel the return of any material in his possession.
In its complaint, JGR states an internal review uncovered theft of confidential material, allegedly done to benefit Spire. The filing argues that before exiting at the close of 2025, Gabehart synced his Google Drive with his work laptop and searched online for Spire-related information during October and November.
On December 17, Gabehart told JGR he had received an offer from Spire on November 13 but said the role would not mirror his post at JGR. Then, on February 11, 2026, JGR claims it learned that Gabehart planned to take a Chief Motorsports Officer role at Spire, overseeing race strategy and operations – a position that overlapped with his former duties at JGR.
Screenshots cited in the filing allegedly show driver pay for 2025 and 2026, sponsor revenue, partner deals spanning multiple seasons, pit crew analytics from 2024 and tire data linked to race results. The complaint argues Gabehart “knew or should have known” that sharing such information with his new employer was forbidden, given his experience in the racing industry.
The team claimed investigators also found a Google Drive folder labeled “Spire” with a subfolder titled “Past Setups,” along with more than a dozen photos of a JGR laptop screen taken on November 7, 2025.
“The forensic review of Defendant’s computer and phone, albeit limited, provided a timeline of a plan, and Defendant’s execution of that plan, to compete unfairly against JGR using the Confidential Information and Trade Secrets that Defendant had promised to keep sacred,” states the original lawsuit filed by JGR against Gabehart.
After the review, JGR says it pulled the plug on talks and sent a demand letter on December 15, directing Gabehart to stop using or sharing team secrets and to cooperate in a forensic review. Gabehart agreed to return JGR material but pushed back on a broader sweep. He said the “Spire” folder held his private notes and records, a stance JGR contests. He also denied keeping JGR financial data, which the team says the photos undercut.
Both camps later agreed to a forensic process where a third-party expert would delete confirmed JGR data from Gabehart’s devices. JGR claims Gabehart resisted a wider search to determine whether files had been copied or shared elsewhere.
When he turned over devices on January 12, 2026, JGR says it found 20 race setup files inside the “Spire” folder along with the November 7 photos. JGR added that it accepted limits on the review under the belief that Gabehart would sit out for a period rather than jumping back into a competition role.
JGR claims it warned him that court action would follow if he stepped into a rival seat while holding knowledge that could tip the scales in Spire’s favor.
Gabehart fired back against the Joe Gibbs Racing team’s lawsuit.
A day after the claims made the rounds online, Gabehart answered the lawsuit on X, stating, “Yesterday afternoon, Joe Gibbs Racing filed a lawsuit claiming – falsely – that I shared JGR confidential information with Spire Motorsports and/or other unnamed third parties. I feel compelled to speak out today and forcefully and emphatically deny these frivolous and retaliatory claims.”
He believes JGR filed suit in retaliation for his departure and is falsely claiming that he shared confidential information with Spire and other unnamed. He said he looks forward to showing the court that he has not shared JGR material with anyone.
Gabehart added he already made that case to JGR. A third-party forensic expert hired by JGR examined his laptop, phone and Google Drive, finding no proof to back claims in the complaint. Gabehart and his camp even offered JGR the chance to review Spire’s systems in the same way but JGR declined and pressed forward with the suit.
This week, Gabehart filed a declaration laying out why he left JGR. He said that while he was named competition director in the 2024 offseason, the role turned out to be different from what he was told it would be. The duties and the way the teams were run did not match what he believed he had accepted: managing all of the JRG teams, not just the team of Ty Gibbs, the grandson of team owner Joe Gibbs.
In the filing, Gabehart states that he raised concerns about a lack of accountability on the No. 54, overseen by Joe Gibbs, and that the autonomy he was promised kept slipping away. What began as control over competition evolved into something different, specifically involving Ty Gibbs’ No. 54 car.
Gabehart said he was promised a COO-type seat with authority to steer decisions over competition. Instead, he found himself looped in on routine calls with Joe Gibbs, executives and family members – a situation he said he could not continue.
Gabehart stated there was pressure on him to take on No. 54 crew chief duties despite his objections, warning it would stall long-term plans. The team and Gabehart parted ways in November 2025, with Gabehart seeking terms for a shorter non-compete and a $100,000 payout tied to separation.
Expectedly, JGR lays out a different version of events in its lawsuit, “Over the course of the 2025 season, Defendant became dissatisfied with his position as Competition Director at JGR. He wanted complete responsibility and control over all departments supporting JGR’s competition efforts, instead of working with other departments supporting JGR’s competition efforts as a peer. At no point in time did Defendant ever give JGR oral or written notice that the Company gave him job duties or responsibilities that were inconsistent with Defendant’s expectations of his job duties or responsibilities as Competition Director. Eventually, Defendant’s dissatisfaction reached a boiling point, and he requested a meeting with JGR owner, Joe Gibbs (“Coach Gibbs”), to voice his demands. Coach Gibbs agreed to meet Defendant on November 6, 2025. During that meeting, Defendant requested additional job authority that would give Defendant carte blanche authority over all racing decisions.
“Coach Gibbs declined to provide Defendant with the authority he wanted and asked whether Defendant wished to stay with JGR or leave the Company. Defendant informed Coach Gibbs he preferred to leave JGR. Following that meeting, JGR understood that the parties would pursue an amicable separation. To that end, JGR began preparing a generous separation agreement for Defendant’s consideration. Defendant had other plans.”
After the split, Gabehart alleged unpaid wages from November 2025 and issues with COBRA coverage that led to denied health claims. In the filing, he admitted photographing internal JGR files on November 7, 2025, but said there was no plan to cross any boundary. He also said he was instructed to tell others he was “on vacation” while the separation agreement was sorted out.
Gabehart explained that after receiving the Spire offer on November 13, 2025, he created a Google Drive folder named “Spire” as a workspace to review the offer and weigh his options, since he believed he and JGR were heading toward a mutual split. He acknowledged accessing that folder after it was created. However, Gabehart confidently stated he never used any confidential JGR information, including material within subfolders, while working at the organization, as he understood his obligations at all times and had no intent to breach them.
Gabehart also stated he paid for a forensic review on his own dime and the findings supported his claim that there was no evidence showing he transmitted, distributed, used or shared any JGR material, including text messages, email attachments or other documents.
Backing him up is a January 21, 2026, email from the forensic examiner, which stated no texts or attachments tied to the flagged files were found, which Gabehart framed as proof that the lawsuit was payback for his move rather than a guardrail for trade secrets.
He argued that an injunction blocking him from this field would not just sting; it would end his run in the sport. The fallout, he said, would stretch beyond lost income, striking at his standing and future path if he were kept out.
Meanwhile, on Tuesday, February 24, 2026, Joe Gibbs Racing asked for a restraining order and filed an amended complaint to prevent Gabehart from working for Spire Motorsports. Their initial filing did not seek an injunction barring him from Spire or list Spire as a defendant.
“As a direct and proximate result of Spire’s misconduct, Plaintiff (JGR) has suffered and continues to suffer damages in an amount to be proven at trial, and irreparable harm by way of, among other things, loss of competitive advantage, and loss of confidential information,” the restraining order states.
“Until November 10, 2025, Gabehart served as one of JGR’s most senior leaders with respect to all competitive aspects of the business. After his demands for additional authority were rebuffed by JGR’s owner, Gabehart immediately embarked on a brazen scheme to steal JGR’s most sensitive information and use it for the benefit of a direct competitor in NASCAR – Spire. In this action, JGR seeks to recover its extensive damages and enjoin Defendants from violating Gabehart’s contractual obligations and wrongfully using or disclosing JGR’s confidential information and trade secrets,” the amended filing states.
Spire stated it will respond to the amended filing.
This is not the first time that JGR has made claims against former employees for allegedly leaving and taking what it claims is proprietary data. It has been a pattern seen several times through the years, although Gabehart’s appears to be the first time JGR has actually sought formal legal action.