Joe Gibbs and Chris Gabehart have been engaged in a legal battle since the start of the 2026 season. With Gibbs trying his best to get Gabehart prosecuted on grounds of stealing competition data from Joe Gibbs Racing, the former tried to schedule his trial in November 2026. However, it seems like the court proceedings won’t stop anytime soon this year. The latest decision has left NASCAR fans waiting for the next season instead.

Gibbs had asked the court for a date in November 2026. Earlier, he suggested that he did not want to fight this battle for too long. In response, Chris Gabehart and his team suggested a date of May 2027. Evaluating their options, the court decided to settle the lawsuit through a trial in January.

As reported by Kelly Crandall on her social media, “Judge Susan Rodriguez has ordered that the trial in Chris Gabehart/Spire Motorsports vs. Joe Gibbs Racing will be held in January 2027. Both parties argued for their proposed dates yesterday in the telephonic hearing (Gibbs wanted Nov. and Spire/Gabehart wanted May 2027).”

For now, Chris Gabehart is still overseeing the operations as a Competition Director for Spire Motorsports. Gibbs tried his best to prove his accusations through an earlier order of expedited discovery. Wherein, Gabehart’s devices would undergo forensic evaluation. Meanwhile, Spire Motorsports was also dragged in by Joe Gibbs for allegedly using the said information to their advantage.

The allegations were rather offensive to Spire Motorsports, and as soon as they won their first race in the Cup Series, they publicly mocked Joe Gibbs, claiming they have two wins. Gibbs did win himself a partial victory in the courtroom wherein the judges ruled that Chris Gabehart won’t be allowed to work at Spire Motorsports in the same role that he held at JGR.

Meanwhile, the two parties are sparing no effort in slandering each other on their social media. Denny Hamlin, in particular, has been furious with Spire Motorsports’ owner, Jeff Dickerson. In a particularly emotional post on his social media, Hamlin publicly accused Spire Motorsports of ‘stealing’ information when they were trying to explain their situation.

Speaking about Spire spitefully, Hamlin said, “Yeah, okay, buddy. You hired someone who stole tens of millions worth of information, lied about communications y’all had after you deleted them, and now is getting paid double to work on your truck program?” The judges have ruled that Spire Motorsports has no such involvement with Chris Gabehart sharing the sensitive JGR information.

However, they did issue a ‘cease and desist’ against the information Chris Gabehart was holding, but acquitted Spire Motorsports of unlawfully using it to their advantage. Regardless, JGR does not seem to be backing down on their claims.

Joe Gibbs doubles down on Spire Motorsports accusations

Carson Hocevar’s first victory at the Talladega Superspeedway was a moment of celebration for Spire Motorsports. But it seems like JGR is trying to weaponize the same for proving their point. In their latest filing, they tried to turn around Dickerson’s sarcastic comments in their own favor, claiming,

“On April 27, 2026, Jeff Dickerson posted a document to his X account that purports to be an unfiled declaration, similar to those Spire has filed in this litigation. In the unfiled declaration, he appears to joke about the allegations in this lawsuit and brags about Spire’s first NASCAR Cup Series win since 2019 and second win ever.

“This sudden improvement in Spire’s Cup Series performance, of course, comes on the heels of Gabehart misappropriating JGR’s confidential information and trade secrets and providing Spire the same or similar services he provided JGR in the last year.”

Spire themselves have been facing exponential growth in the Cup Series this year compared to their past seasons. Daniel Suárez looks like a completely different animal while racing at Spire. His performance and confidence in the team regularly show up in his media interviews. Hocevar’s first victory is the cherry on top, proving his top 5 finishes in the previous weekends were no fluke.

Unfortunately for Spire Motorsports, until this lawsuit is settled, Gabehart won’t return to their team as a Competition Director, and JGR’s accusations will only increase once their performance gets better along the season.