Joe Gibbs Racing has filed a lawsuit in the Western District of North Carolina alleging that former competition director Chris Gabehart had "embarked on a brazen scheme" to steal confidential information.
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The lawsuit, filed on Feb. 19, alleged that Gabehart had violated his contractual obligations and had wrongfully used confidential information and trade secrets. The longtime crew chief-turned-competition director departed Joe Gibbs Racing after the 2025 season.
The reports at the time said he would join Spire Motorsports. This lawsuit claims that Gabehart stole sensitive information to benefit Spire Motorsports.
"Until November 10, 2025, Defendant served as one of JGR's most senior leaders with respect to all competitive aspects of the business," the lawsuit introduction stated.
"After his demands for additional authority were rebuffed by JGR's owner, Defendant immediately 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.
"In this action, JGR seeks to recover its extensive damages and enjoin Defendant from violating his contractual obligations and wrongfully using JGR's confidential information and trade secrets."
According to the assignment packet, this case has been assigned to District Judge Matthew E. Orso and US Magistrate Judge David Keesler.
MORE: Full lawsuit against former competition director Chris Gabehart
The lawsuit also said that Gabehart had been directly involved in investigating and addressing another employee's "misconduct of misappropriating JGR's Confidential Information and Trade Secrets after the employee obtained an offer to go work for a direct competitor."
A former Joe Gibbs Racing engineer moved over to Richard Childress Racing and allegedly received money in exchange for stolen setup information.
The lawsuit states that Gabehart had met with team owner Joe Gibbs on Nov. 6, 2025, and requested "carte blanche authority over all racing decisions." Gibbs said no and asked if Gabehart preferred to stay with the team or leave. Gabehart chose to leave.
"On November 10, 2025, JGR presented Defendant with the terms of a proposed separation agreement. Under those terms, Defendant would have been permitted to work for another NASCAR team, provided that he agreed not to solicit key employees and contractors and that he cooperated in returning JGR equipment and information," the lawsuit stated.
It continued and alleged that Gabehart had represented that he was unsure about his future employment. The lawsuit then alleged that the former competition director had been personally meeting with Spire Motorsports owner Jeff Dickerson and had begun requesting edits to the separation agreement so that he could solicit JGR employees to leave the team.
According to the lawsuit, Gabehart told JGR that he had received an unsolicited offer from Spire Motorsports for a job bearing little similarity to his role as competition director. The lawsuit later stated that JGR learned on Feb. 11 that Gabehart planned to take the role of Chief Motorsports Officer at Spire. This position would put him in charge of all of Spire's racing strategy and operations.
The lawsuit stated that JGR conducted a forensic investigation into Gabehart's company computer and cell phone and discovered many "shocking" things. This included the following:
- Defendant had synced his personal Google Drive with his JGR Laptop
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Defendant had repeatedly conducted Google searches and online research about Spire during October and November of 2025
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The Google Drive contained a folder titled "Spire" and a subfolder titled "Past Setups." JGR's lawsuit later said that the folder had included 20 of the team's race car setup files
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Defendant had possession of more than a dozen photos of the screen of his JGR Laptop taken on November 7, 2025. These photos contained images of JGR files containing Confidential Information and Trade Secrets.
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The forensic investigation also allegedly revealed that Gabehart had accessed personal financial information including driver pay for 2025 and 2026, revenue from sponsors, complete payroll details for the company, contract lengths, titles, and incentives.
- The lawsuit alleged that Gabehart had also obtained detailed analytics of race car tires used to assess impacts on race results.
