Just when you thought NASCAR had enough courtroom drama to deal with, along comes another juicy lawsuit. And the latest blockbuster gets more intriguing by the day.

Earlier this week came the bombshell news that Joe Gibbs Racing had filed suit against former crew chief and competition director Chris Gabehart, claiming he “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".

The 44-year-old Gabehart, who was crew chief to Denny Hamlin for six years before changing roles in 2024, ​​furiously denied the claims, calling the lawsuit 'spiteful' and 'baseless', and promised a full legal response in the coming days.

A day later, as the dust began to settle from that news, Spire confirmed its long expected hire of Gabehart. But if we thought that was the end of the drama, we were very wrong.

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Joe Gibbs Racing adds Spire to Gabehart lawsuit

Late on Tuesday there was another blockbusting update, that JGR has now ADDED Spire to its suit as a defendant, and is now taking on both Gabehart and his new team in court.

Per The Athletic insider Jordan Bianchi, JGR is also seeking a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction that Gabehart must "cease and desist working or performing any services for Spire similar to those he provided to JGR for the 18 months following February 9, 2026”.

So in essence the new twist means not only have Spire been well and truly dragged into this, Gabehart could be blocked from doing his new job until the case is closed.

What exactly is JGR claiming?

The initial suit against Gabehart is both fascinating and explosive. It claims:

  • 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.

In the filing, JGR also outlined the types of confidential information and the trade secrets which it is 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.

Per the initial filing, 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.

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