Chris Gabehart became the center of NASCAR's latest legal drama on Thursday, when his former team Joe Gibbs Racing announced that they are taking legal action against him for allegedly stealing confidential information.
According to JGR, Gabehart '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'.
Gabehart has furiously denied the claims, calling the lawsuit 'spiteful' and 'baseless', and has promised a full legal response in the coming days.
In timing which could scarcely have been scripted in a more dramatic fashion, the former JGR Director of Competition was confirmed on Saturday as Spire's new Chief Motorsports Officer.
LAWSUIT DRAMA: Joe Gibbs Racing sues former Denny Hamlin crew chief
Who has Chris Gabehart worked for?
Gabehart's first NASCAR job was as an engineer with Kyle Busch Motorsports in the NASCAR Truck Series at the start of the 2010s, having joined the team's late model program after quitting driving at the end of 2007 due to funding issues. He had won the late model CRA Super Series championship that year.
The Louisville, Kentucky-born engineer then moved up to the Cup Series in 2012 to work on Busch's own No. 18 car as an engineer.
Gabehart first became a crew chief a few years later in 2016, winning multiple Xfinity Series races with Erik Jones in the No. 20 car before Jones moved up to the Cup Series and the drive was shared between a number of drivers the following year.
In 2018, he moved to the No. 19 car of Brandon Jones, helping the driver put together a solid (but winless) year before being assigned to the No. 11 Cup Series car of Denny Hamlin beginning in 2019, after Hamlin had struggled through the only winless season of his great career.
The pair worked together for six seasons, combining for 23 race wins including Daytona 500 victories in each of their first two years as a combination.
Gabehart served two four-race suspensions during that time, once after the No. 11 dropped a ballast before the start of the Colc-Cola 600 in 2020 and once more in 2022 when Hamlin's left-front wheel came off the car while leaving pit road at Dover.
The now-44 year old engineer was promoted late in 2024 to be JGR's competition director, moving him upstairs from the day-to-day with Hamlin and his team. He left that role unexpectedly in early December 2025, and was heavily linked with Spire until the move was confirmed some months later.
NASCAR Today: Dale Jr teases surprise comeback as lawsuit reveals huge JGR salary
What is Chris Gabehart's salary?
It's unknown what he will earn at Spire, but court filings show that Gabehart was earning in excess of $1million per annum in his role as competition director at JGR. His three-year deal with potential for a one-year extension gradually increased year on year over the term to a possible $1.15million in 2027-2028.
In terms of bonuses, Gabehart had the potential to earn a further $125,000 if the team finished first in final owner points standings, plus further escalators based on postseason performance. These carried $65,000 for a team reaching the Championship final four, $25,000 for the round of eight and $10,000 for the round of 12.
Gabehart’s contract also contained incentives based on results in each race, either $20,000 or $30,000 depending on the specific race.
What have Hamlin and Joe Gibbs said about Chris Gabehart?
Hamlin hasn't spoken openly about his old crew chief's departure from the team or the recent allegations against him, but said in 2024 after being informed that Gabehart would be moving on from his crew chief role: “I certainly was shocked. That’s all I’ll say.”
He added: “The first few days was a shock, but I’m moving on. There’s nothing I can do to change anything that happened, and JGR is doing what they feel is best for them and I totally understand that. And if all of our program gets better, the 11 car’s gonna run better as well, right?"
On Gabehart's leadership, he said at the time: “I think he’s got a very good leadership style to him. I think that probably if you’re soft, it’s going to rub you the wrong way. I think if you’re strong-minded and you are willing to take constructive criticism, I think he’s a great leader as far as that’s concerned."
Last week, team owner Joe Gibbs was quizzed on the reason for his exit, having only been in his role as Director of Competition for less than 12 months, and told SiriusXM NASCAR Radio: "After the season, Chris and I met and we just decided to go our separate ways."
Chris Gabehart's statement in full
“Yesterday afternoon, Joe Gibbs Racing filed a lawsuit claiming – falsely – that I shared JGR confidential information with Spire Motorsports and/or other unnamed third parties. I feel compelled to speak out today and forcefully and emphatically deny these frivolous and retaliatory claims.
“I look forward to the opportunity to demonstrate to the Court that I have not shared JGR's confidential information with anyone. In fact, I have already demonstrated that to JGR.
"A third-party forensic expert retained by JGR recently examined my laptop, cell phone and personal Google Drive and found no evidence to support the baseless allegations in JGR's lawsuit. We even offered JGR the opportunity to do a similar review of Spire's systems. JGR refused that offer and filed this spiteful lawsuit instead.
“Stay tuned. We will have much more to say in the legal response we will be filing in the coming days.”
Why is Joe Gibbs Racing suing Chris Gabehart?
JGR says that they have filed the lawsuit seeking "extensive damages and enjoin Defendant from violating his contractual obligations and wrongfully using JGR’s confidential information and trade secrets".
JGR says that after his demand for more authority was denied, Gabehart informed Joe Gibbs that he wanted to leave the team. Then, in the days that followed his departure, Gabehart had been meeting with Spire Motorsports owner Jeff Dickerson.
It is important to stress that Spire Motorsports has not been accused of any wrongdoing.
However, JGR says this meeting aroused their suspicions, and they decided to undertake a forensic investigation into Gabehart's company laptop, finding "shocking" results, uncovering what they call a "brazen theft of its confidential and trade secrets" when examining Gabehart's laptop. The filing alleges:
- JGR Uncovers Defendant’s Brazen Theft of Its Confidential Information and Trade Secrets.
- Defendant had synced his personal Google Drive with his JGR laptop.
- Defendant had repeatedly conducted Google searches and online research about Spire during October and November of 2025.
- The Google Drive contained a folder titled “Spire” and a subfolder titled “Past Setups.”
- 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.
Ultimately, JGR is seeking relief to prevent any use or disclosure of its confidential information or trade secrets, as well as damages it believes exceed $8 million.
READ MORE: NASCAR legend reveals Dale Earnhardt moment he will never forget
What are JGR's 'trade secrets'?
In the filing, JGR also outlined the types of confidential information and the trade secrets that they are talking about, including:
- Technical information regarding racecar setups, the proprietary technology JGR uses to run simulations to determine the most advantageous racecar setups, and the results of those simulations.
- JGR’s analytics and the processes and technologies for measuring racecar performance, pit crew performance, and driver performance.
- JGR’s processes, procedures, and analysis for improving racecar performance, pit crew performance, and driver performance.
- JGR’s processes, procedures, and technologies used in analyzing the performance of competitors’ racecars and drivers.
- JGR’s processes and procedures for evaluating fuel consumption of JGR’s racecars and competitors’ racecars used before and during races.
- Base compensation and bonus information for certain JGR employees supporting racecar performance, including engineers, crew chiefs, pit crew members, and mechanics.
- The amount of payment JGR receives from its company sponsorships.
WATCH FOR FREE: We've Lost Dale Earnhardt: 25 Years Later
