Despite Ty Gibbs winning his first NASCAR Cup Series race in Bristol, the news out of Joe Gibbs Racing is currently taking a legal shape after Chris Gabehart was reportedly spotted working in a competition role for Spire Motorsports.

Gabehart, who is currently the Chief Motorsports Officer at Spire, was trackside and spotted wearing a headset. According to JGR, this points to him violating the temporary restraining order that prevents him from providing services to Spire that are similar to the ones he was serving at JGR.

The most recent filing comes from Wally Brown, JGR’s current Competition Director. He submitted pictures of Gabehart at the infield during track sessions at Bristol. The pictures, taken by Ty Gibbs' social media manager, David Biro, reportedly showed Gabehart wearing a radio headset and standing at the Spire workstation, close to Carson Hocevar.

"In my experience, access to the workstation is typically limited to competition personnel with direct input into a Cup team's on-track performance," read Brown's filing. "In the photograph, Gabehart, standing with his back to the camera and wearing a black shirt and jeans, is apparently monitoring data screens."

"This position in close proximity is consistent with someone providing input into competition decisions. His presence at this location during Practice, as well as his specific location within the workstation, suggests to me Gabehart was likely actively participating in Spire's competition operations for the NASCAR Cup race," it further read.

The next turn in the JGR lawsuit awaits

For the unversed, here is the full context of the JGR lawsuit against Gabehart. Gabehart was a Competition Director at Joe Gibbs Racing before he was sacked on November 10 last year. Shortly after, Gabehart took up his new role at Spire Motorsports. Alleging illegal sharing of trade secrets, JGR sued him for over $8 million before adding Spire Motorsports as a defendant.

According to JGR, Gabehart took pictures of his work laptop on his personal phone and shared confidential info with Spire Motorsports. The contents allegedly included confidential race setups, performance audits, pit crew analytics, and sponsor revenue data.

With that as the premise, JGR filed the case, accusing Gabehart of violating an 18-month non-compete clause besides leaking trade secrets. Spire Motorsports, however, has argued that it already has a competition director in Matt McCall, who is performing the duties for them that JGR is accusing Gabehart of doing.

The next hearing for this case will take place on Thursday, April 16.

Written by

Debrup Chaudhuri