Not long after letting go of Chris Gabehart on February 9, Joe Gibbs Racing filed a federal lawsuit against him, accusing him of walking out with millions worth of team data and selling it to a rival team. Since Gabeheart had joined Spire Motorsports as their chief motorsports officer, team owner Jeff Dickerson was called to the court to defend his team. He later appeared on The Gluckcast and alleged that JGR was falsely accusing them of using their data to win races.

That response didn’t sit well with Denny Hamlin. He fired back immediately on X: “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? GTFO.” Later, Hamlin discussed his response with reporter Jeff Gluck, and he was honest.

Denny Hamlin’s reaction gave everything away

“Well, first, it was a knee-jerk reaction,” he said, “and, you know, it doesn’t mean I don’t feel that way, but it was a little bit knee-jerk.”

So, the reaction was unplanned, but the belief behind it was not. While Hamlin backs JGR’s decision to take this to court, his reasoning is straightforward. As per him, if teams cannot protect what they’ve built themselves, the sport will become a bidding war. “I would just go to someone at Hendrick that he checked out, and say, I’ll give you $10 million a year, bring everything with you,” he said. “Like, that’s just not the way that it can operate, right?”

Gabehart reportedly downloaded thousands of proprietary files before he left. According to the forensic analysis, a Google Drive folder labeled “Spire” also had a sub-folder called “part setups.” There are also claims in the filing that Gabehart photographed JGR documents on his laptop to leave no digital evidence or trail.

As per the current state of the lawsuit, a federal judge has extended a temporary restraining order against him. That ruling cited a credibility issue with his claim that he deleted everything. With that level of detail, one cannot question Hamlin’s initial reaction. “I know what JGR spent to make their cars go around,” he said. “It is an astronomical amount, and they deserve to keep that information to themselves.”

There was a certain something to Hamlin’s tone when he gave that reaction, something that signaled a more personal approach rather than just something he would feel for his profession. When asked about it, Hamlin gave clarity, saying, “Yes, there was just that I felt like he went after the ceiling,” he said, “and, you know, it’s JGR’s ceiling, it’s my family, so that’s where the nature of it comes from.”

Loyalty is a big trait for Denny. This is not the first time Hamlin has been part of a huge lawsuit. The previous one with 23XI and NASCAR in contention has made way for this one, too.

How the case itself pulls in multiple entities

Looking at the current state of the lawsuit, there is a detailed timeline of what JGR believes happened. To substantiate it, a forensic review has also been done, as mentioned earlier.

Now, the material in question is whether Gabehart allegedly stole what teams call the “setup Bible.” This includes tire analytics collected after analyzing race results and simulation codes used to monitor and model performance. According to JGR, they spent anywhere between $15 to $20 million building these systems over five years.

As per the filing, Gabehart did not merely take the data and give it to Spire. Since joining, he’s used the data to help Spire Motorsports competitively. From JGR’s perspective, that is equivalent to handing over a significant part of the hard work they have put into building their team without getting paid for it. This is also why the team is pushing for more than $8 million in damages, trying to reinforce Gabehart’s non-compete agreement.

The timing of this also puts things into perspective. Following the recent antitrust settlement between 23XI and the NASCAR management, teams now have defined ownership over their technical data. This means they can also earn by licensing it or generating revenue by sharing it. Now, the information previously used only in competition is also commercial.

When you put Hamlin into the equation, he has a very mixed relationship with all the entities involved. JGR is the technical support for all teams Toyota backs. Even 23XI Racing, which Hamlin co-owns, is a Toyota-operated team.

To put it simply, Hamlin is on the team that brought the case, part of the team affected by it, and has a personal relationship with the person who is central to it.