Judge: Gabehart can work at Spire but not with JGR duties
CHARLOTTE, NC — A federal decide dominated Monday that former Joe Gibbs Racing competitors director Chris Gabehart can proceed to work for Spire Motorsports but not the position he carried out with his outdated NASCAR staff.
Gabehart is the chief motorsports officer at Spire, a job that encompasses most of dad or mum firm TWG Global’s racing properties. He made his first public look as a Spire worker over the weekend at the IndyCar occasion in St. Petersburg, Florida.
Gabehart can journey to this weekend’s race at Phoenix Raceway, the place each NASCAR and IndyCar are competing. TWG Motorsports additionally owns Andretti Global of IndyCar.
The ruling Monday from US District Judge Susan C. Rodriguez within the Western District of North Carolina adopted her order that either side try to discover a decision following Friday’s listening to on JGR’s movement for a restraining order to stop Gabehart from working for Spire.
She set a March 16 date for a full listening to concerning Gabehart’s employment.
Another grievance from JGR that Gabehart stole knowledge from the staff to present to Spire has not but been addressed. JGR has claimed Gabehart brought about greater than $8 million in damages for copying recordsdata and setups from the staff, and Spire has been named as a defendant.
Rodriguez on Monday ordered Gabehart to return all knowledge and materials he has from JGR to the staff owned by Joe Gibbs, who based the NASCAR group in 1992 after he gained three Super Bowls as Washington’s soccer coach.
Gibbs is a member of each the Pro Football Hall of Fame and NASCAR Hall of Fame and now co-owns JGR with his daughter-in-law, Heather. The staff fields Cup vehicles for Christopher Bell, Chase Briscoe, Ty Gibbs and Denny Hamlin.
“Spire takes trade secrets very seriously, and we’re a lot of things, but we’re not hypocrites,” Spire co-owner Jeff Dickerson stated. “We don’t want anybody else’s stuff, other than Hendrick, obviously. We’re happy. The facts are the facts and I don’t have any ill will toward JGR.
“I feel we received thrown in as a result of that is the place it landed. I’m joyful with the choice and we take commerce secrets and techniques tremendous critically.”
Spire already has an alliance with Hendrick Motorsports, a deal that gives the team access to the Hendrick data. Hendrick is the winningest team in NASCAR history. Spire fields Cup cars for Carson Hocevar, Michael McDowell and Daniel Suarezas well as a Truck Series team. JGR does not have a Truck Series team.
Gibbs and his daughter-in-law were not in court Monday for the 10-minute proceeding. They did attend last Friday’s hearing.
“We are happy with at the moment’s ruling by the United States District Court for the Western District of North Carolina for a short lived restraining order implementing the phrases of our contract with Chris Gabehart,” JGR said in a statement. “We will proceed the authorized course of to guard our data and battle for what is true for our race staff, our staff, and our companions.”
Gabehart joined JGR in 2012 as an engineer, worked his way to crew chief for Hamlin and became competition director ahead of the 2025 season. Gabehart spent six seasons as Hamlin’s crew chief and the duo won 22 Cup races — two of which were the Daytona 500 — and qualified for the championship finale three times.
Hamlin finished fifth or better in six seasons under Gabehart, while Hamlin’s wins and laps-led were second-best in the Cup Series during that period.
Gabehart admitted to the court he did take photographs on his phone of a JGR Excel file and other projects that he had played a role in developing. But Gabehart insisted a forensic audit proved the information was never shared with any other organization.
He says his 13-year tenure at JGR began to unravel when he was pressured last season to crew chief Ty Gibbs, the grandson of the team owner, despite having been promoted to competition director at the end of 2024.
“I notified JGR that the job was not, at all, as marketed. I used to be promised a COO-type position overseeing all aggressive operations with autonomy to guide,” Gabehart told the court. “Instead, I discovered myself continuously intertwined with Coach Gibbs, senior JGR executives and members of the family when making even routine competitors selections — a dysfunctional organizational construction that I might not proceed in.”
Gabehart said from the IndyCar race on Saturday that the dispute is not about him being pressured to crew chief Ty Gibbs, who Gabehart said was not held to the same standard as the other drivers. He said he feels bad about the publicity his dispute has caused for NASCAR and the Gibbs family, who employed him for 13 seasons.
“Deep down, I imagine Ty is a very good one who has been delt a very powerful hand the final three years, him and his household,” Gabehart said, “and I really feel actually dangerous about that.”
