The Joe Gibbs Racing vs Chris Gabehart Lawsuit has become an ongoing storyline in NASCAR, with fans waiting for updates on the proceedings. Just before another race weekend at Watkins Glen, there indeed is an update.

The Judge presiding over the $8million case, Susan Rodriguez, has set a date for the trial after a telephonic hearing with both parties earlier this week.

The two sides had asked for different dates, with JGR seeking an earlier trial in November 2026 and Gabehart and Spire requesting a May 2027 date. The Judge somewhat split the difference and scheduled the trial for the ongoing case for January 2027.

The case that has two outfits on the NASCAR grid in a deadlock began after Chris Gabehart joined Spire as their Chief Racing Officer. Gabehart was fired by JGR in November last year, and the team claimed that Gabehart walked away with confidential information to Spire.

The claims included Gabehart taking pictures of confidential setups, strategy, and sponsorship data on his personal phone. JGR believes that Gabehart has passed on that information to Spire and also violated his 18-month non-compete clause.

The court gave Gabehart a temporary restraining order earlier this year, disallowing him to continue working for Spire in a role similar to that of his Competitions Director position at JGR. 

JGR filed another motion after the race in Bristol, where Gabehart was trackside for Spire. The filings included pictures of Spire's CRO talking to Carson Hocevar and wearing a headset, things they claim are similar to what Gabehart did at JGR. 

The court continued the temporary restraining order, clearing Gabehart to attend races as long as he doesn’t violate his non-compete.

Where things stand in the JGR lawsuit

Apart from the Trial date, the court also directed the parties to meet and confer and submit a joint proposal on pretrial deadlines within 10 days. The court had earlier asked Gabehart to return any confidential information to JGR. 

However, there have been no reports on whether he has started the process yet. Gabehart had earlier stated that JGR withheld his paycheck, meaning they violated his contract first. This indicated he should not be bound by the non-compete clause.

Meanwhile, JGR has also used Carson Hocevar's win in Talladega on April 26 as an example of the impact of their stolen data.

Another layer of this case was that JGR claimed that the Spire executives' chats with Gabehart had a lot of deleted texts, which the court has granted to be included after an analysis of a list of devices. JGR believes that those chats hold vital information on their racing operations.

Read more at the RFK Racing Digest!

Written by

Debrup Chaudhuri

Edited by

Yask Kotak