Joe Gibbs Racing Adds Spire Motorsports to Chris Gabehart Lawsuit

Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) has amended its lawsuit filing against Chris Gabehart, the team's former Competition Director, to include rival NASCAR Cup Series operation Spire Motorsports, alleging that the multi-car organization accepted illegally obtained information.

In a new filing made on Tuesday (February 24), the championship-winning organizationn says that the actions of both Gabehart and Spire Motorsports were "immoral, unethical, and unscrupulous".

Gabehart, a long-time crew chief turned Competition Director at Joe Gibbs Racing, was first named in a lawsuit from the team owned by Super Bowl-winning head coach Joe Gibbs on February 19, with allegations made that he'd engaged in what the team called a "brazen scheme" to take information from the organization and funnel it directly to his new place of employment -- Spire Motorsports.

In addition to naming Spire Motorsports as a co-defendent, Joe Gibbs Racing is also seeking a temporary restraining order, as well as preliminary and permanent injunctive relief from the Court against Gabehart. When filed last week, the lawsuit did not originally include Spire.

With this brand-new filing, Joe Gibbs Racing is hoping that the Court will prohibit Chris Gabehart from working for Spire Motorsports for an 18-month period, which would contractually begin on February 9, 2026, as per the team's non-complete clause.

Another request from the organization is that Gabehart be ordered to stop using, sharing, copying, or transferring any proprietary information that belonged to the organization, and that the information taken be returned promptly.

In its earlier filing, Joe Gibbs Racing says that information allegedly taken by Gabehart via pictures from his laptop uploaded to his Google Drive, include: comprehensive post-race audits and analyses of team and driver performance, complete payroll details, job titles, contract lengths, annual compensation, incentive compensation, and compensation plans for previous years, an employee compensation calculator, driver pay, revenues from sponsors, partners, and other business arrangements for the last three seasons, pit crew analytics, and detailed analytics of tires.

Gabehart has not yet filed a legal response, and has 14 days from the time of the lawsuit being filed to carry that out. However, the day after the lawsuit was initially filed, the long-time industry member took to social media with a statement of his own.

“I look forward to the opportunity to demonstrate to the Court that I have not shared JGR’s confidential information with anyone. In fact, I have already demonstrated that to JGR,”reads a statement from Gabehart posted to social media on February 20. “A third-party forensic expert retained by JGR recently examined my laptop, cell phone, and personal Google Drive and found no evidence to support the baseless allegations in JGR’s lawsuit. We even offered JGR the opportunity to do a similar review of Spire’s systems. JGR refused that offer and filed this spiteful lawsuit instead.”