Spire Motorsports and Joe Gibbs Racing have been at odds for some time. What started as a feud between JGR and Chris Gabehart over his exit from the team in 2025 is now turning out to be a team vs team battle. Although the trial date is yet to be finalized, it looks like Spire Motorsports is taking a sarcastic jab at JGR after their latest Talladega win. In doing so, they are digging up the old dirt.

Tom Melsheimer, attorney for JGR, was the one who kick-started this series of back-and-forth jabs last month. He argued that Spire Motorsports, which had just one Cup Series win since 2018, wanted to improve that number. It is fair for JGR to plead their case after losing one of their top employee to a rival team. But accusing them of stealing the key JGR information to fast-track their winning run definitely offended Spire. And that sentiment is reflected in their latest social media post.

“In connection with the matter, considerable attention has been drawn to the fact that Spire only has one win in the premier motorsports division in North America, the NASCAR Cup Series,” the declaration read. “The allegation is now wrong. Let the record now reflect we have two,” the statement in the document read. This was possible because of Hocevar’s heroic win at Talladega. But, this doesn’t end the stalemate situation when it comes to legal proceedings.

Joe Gibbs secured a partial legal win in the ongoing case against Chris Gabehart last week. After months of waiting, Judge Susan Rodriguez ruled that Gabehart cannot work in a role at Spire Motorsports that mirrors the position he previously held at Joe Gibbs Racing. “For the sake of clarity, the Court is not requiring Gabehart to resign from his position at Spire or prohibiting him from working for Spire,” Rodriguez ruled. Other services not performed at JGR in the year prior to his termination are permissible, which allows him to be present at the racetracks.

So Gabehart isn’t allowed to work as the competition director. Under the ruling, the former JGR competition director must not retain, share, copy, or use any confidential JGR materials and is required to return anything tied to the organization’s trade secrets. Gabehart has admitted to taking photographs of Gibbs’ information and creating folders on his laptop. But there’s no clarity on when the trial between the two parties will commence.

As it turns out, JGR has decided to refile its lawsuit against Spire Motorsports and Chris Gabehart. The first version of the lawsuit was filed against Gabehart in February. The filing claimed $8 million in damages after alleging he stole proprietary data and shared it with his new employer, Spire Motorsports. Later in February, the Chevy team became a part of this lawsuit after JGR amended the complaint. However, with their latest move, it remains to be seen how they will expand their complaint, as they have yet to file this in court.

Outside of the court, Spire has made some sizeable gains, and last weekend at Talladega, they managed to get back to the victory lane.

Carson Hocevar comes in clutch at Talladega

Two runner-up finishes last year, and the Coca-Cola 600 miss hurt Hocevar badly. He found himself in contention, but somehow he couldn’t cross the finish line. That changed at Talladega. A big one took out the big contenders front he race early, but Chris Buescher and Erik Jones were not going to give in that easily.

With 8 laps to go, the No. 77 car made contact with Erik Jones in the inside lane and brought out a caution. Nothing intentional by Hocevar, but this allowed him to stage the last-lap pass on Chris Buescher. Although a big crash took place on the final lap, this time around, Hocevar was right where he needed to be, first to cross the finish line.

After pulling off one of the coolest victory lap celebrations, Hocevar was seen controlling his tears. He thanked his family and remembered his grandpa in the moment. “Hopefully my grandpa’s watching. My grandma died last year, so I’m so thankful that I can give my grandpa a trophy now. Wish my parents were here. All thanks to Jeff Dickerson. Unbelievable. I’m just so thankful, thank you. I posted on Instagram I didn’t really care, we were going to win, and we won.”

He now finds himself 8th in the points standings, firmly positioned to mount his charge for the Chase. And this win could be the first of many for the rising star.