The legal battle surrounding Joe Gibbs Racing and Chris Gabehart has taken a new turn. JGR has raised fresh allegations against the team's former competition director in the second amended complaint.

The $8 million lawsuit first came to light in mid-February, when JGR claimed Gabehart breached his contract, which included a non-competition clause. Moreover, the lawsuit alleged that Gabehart "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 Motorsports."

Following that, Federal Judge Suzan C. Rodriguez prohibited Gabehart from participating in competition-related activities at his new team.

However, in the new filings, JGR has now claimed that Chris Gabehart has been performing the role of a competition director under the new title. In the images of the new filings shared by NASCAR reporter Matt Weaver on X, a section read:

"A Spire employee has informed a JGR employee that Gabehart is in charge of and/or significantly participating in Spire’s competition strategy and decisions. Employees were instructed not to discuss the fact Gabehart is leading and/or participating in Spire’s competition and strategy decision-making process outside of Spire. There is no legal justification for advising its employees to conceal the true nature of Gabehart's services."

If found true, this will be another violation of the non-compete agreement by Gabehart.

The counter-argument that Spire Motorsports had previously presented was that Gabehart just holds a senior executive role at Spire that is similar to what Joe Gibbs and Dave Alpern do at JGR. They further argued that being around the competition department does not necessarily mean that Gabehart is actively involved in the decision-making process.

As the legal battle continues to unfold, there is yet another layer to the lawsuit that references December last year. 

JGR Expands Its Lawsuit Against Gabehart/Spire Motorsports

In the ongoing NASCAR lawsuit between Gibbs and Gabehart, the now Spire employee is not only accused of violating the non-compete agreement, but also accused of entering Spire Motorsports' shop back in December.

JGR claims that Spire was aware of the non-compete clause in place, but still integrated Gabehart into the organization. A section of the filing states:

"Upon information and belief, Spire allowed Gabehart to enter its race shop during December 2025 and January 2026 while Spire was preparing for the 2026 NASCAR season and after Spire knew of Gabehart’s noncompete, non-solicitation, and confidentiality provisions under the Agreement."

While Judge Rodriguez has ruled that Gabehart did steal the trade secrets and JGR has filed and expanded its claims, they have yet to present evidence of the same in court for all of their allegations.

The official trial between Spire and Gabehart versus JGR is set for January 2027.

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Written by

Chionia Libania Colaco

Edited by

Yash Kotak