Judge Rules Gabehart Can Continue Working For Spire With Limitations

Chris Gabehart will be allowed to continue to work for Spire Motorsports during his lawsuit against Joe Gibbs Racing, but a district judge placed limitations on his scope of work in a temporary restraining order granted to Joe Gibbs Racing.

Apr 28, 2024; Dover, Delaware, USA; Chris Gabehart on pit road prior to the Wurth 400 at Dover Motor Speedway. | Matthew O'Haren-Imagn Images

Judge Susan C. Rodriguez of the United States District Court for the Western District of North Carolina ruled on Monday morning in regard to the temporary restraining order request from Joe Gibbs Racing, where the team was seeking to keep Chris Gabehart from working for Spire Motorsports prior to the lawsuit trial, where JGR alleges Gabehart took confidential proprietary information from JGR with him to Spire with the intent to give it to his new team.

Gabehart has refuted the allegations from Joe Gibbs Racing publicly and in documentation submitted to the court.

According to the ruling from Judge Rodriguez, Gabehart can continue working with Spire Motorsports, however, there are limitations placed on Gabehart. The former Joe Gibbs Racing competition director will not be allowed to conduct any roles with Spire that overlap with the duties he performed as competition director for Joe Gibbs Racing.

Judge Rodriguez concluded that any duty outside of that scope is completely fair game for Gabehart at Spire while under the TRO.

Additionally, per court order, Gabehart must return any JGR proprietary data or trade secrets in his possession, and he is not permitted to copy, use, or transfer any of it to Spire Motorsports.

Following the ruling from Judge Rodriguez on Monday, Joe Gibbs Racing issued a statement expressing gratitude of the temporary restraining order that was put in place.

"We are pleased with today’s ruling by the United States District Court for the Western District of North Carolina for a temporary restraining order enforcing the terms of our contract with Chris Gabehart. We will continue the legal process to protect our information and fight for what is right for our race team, our employees, and our partners."

Joe Gibbs Racing, Gabehart, and Spire Motorsports, which was added as a defendant in the lawsuit following an amendment from JGR last week, will return to the Federal Court House in Charlotte, NC, on Monday, March 16, for expedited discovery and preliminary injunctionhearing.