For months, Joe Gibbs Racing insisted its former competition director, Chris Gabehart, was secretly running Spire Motorsports’ strategy. JGR made this claim even though Gabehart signed a non-compete deal when he left late last year. This accusation was a major part of JGR’s $8 million lawsuit.
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On Wednesday, JGR had to take it all back. Legal papers show that JGR completely dropped this big claim after Spire asked to see the hard proof.
JGR said, as reported by Matt Weaver, “In discovery, Spire Motorsports II, LLC (“Spire”) requested information supporting the allegations contained in paragraph 129 of the Second Amended Complaint. JGR responded to Spire’s request and concedes that it does not possess nonprivileged information sufficient to support the allegations contained in paragraph 129 of the Second Amended Complaint.”
This change is a big deal for the lawsuit. In motorsports, proving someone stole ideas or secrets is very hard.
This is not the first time a NASCAR team has tried to block an employee from leaving. Back in 2014, Richard Childress Racing tried to sue engineer Matt McCall to stop him from joining Chip Ganassi Racing, claiming he would share trade secrets. A judge threw that request out because there was no hard proof.
Now, JGR admitting they lack proof suggests they made the claim on a hunch, hoping to find the evidence later during the legal process.
“I look forward to the opportunity to demonstrate to the Court that I have not shared JGR’s confidential information with anyone.” This was Gabehart’s response back in February. Spire Motorsports backed him throughout the process. Both Gabehart and Spire said they would prove JGR wrong. Now, it looks like the powerful Toyota team backed down before the trial even starts.
However, JGR is not dropping the whole $8 million lawsuit. Other serious claims are still active. JGR claims Gabehart stole confidential information by taking photos of sensitive data on his company laptop. It also alleges that he copied important files to his personal Google Drive account. On top of that, the team says Gabehart had a folder named “Spire” on his laptop before joining the team and lied to everyone at JGR by saying he didn’t already have a deal in place with Spire.
Gabehart, meanwhile, continues to fight back against his former employer. He’s seeking millions in allegedly unpaid wages and bonuses. He has also accused JGR’s legal team of violating his privacy by reading confidential emails between him and his lawyers.
Spire is also suing JGR. The team claims JGR broke an unwritten deal about a veteran car chief named Robert “Cheddar” Smith. Spire let Smith leave his contract early so he could join JGR in April 2025 to help driver Ty Gibbs. In return, Spire says JGR promised to either release an employee Spire wanted or pay them $100,000. Spire says JGR never did either.
The lawsuit is far from over. While JGR has dropped one of its biggest claims, both sides still have several other accusations to fight over in court. The next big date is the nine-day jury trial, which starts on February 1, 2027. It was scheduled that way to give both sides enough time to gather evidence, deal with legal issues before the trial, and avoid the busy NASCAR season.