Another lawsuit hits NASCAR as Joe Gibbs Racing sues former Denny Hamlin crew chief

The NASCAR world has been hit by shock news this evening, with Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) having filed a lawsuit against their former Director of Competition, Chris Gabehart.

Gabehart, who was also the crew chief for Denny Hamlin between 2019 and 2024, exited the team in mysterious circumstances in December, with no official announcement having been made by either party.

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."

Now, while that might have initially been the case, there is a lot more to it, with JGR having filed a lawsuit against Gabehart in the United States Court for the Western District of North Carolina Charlotte Division on Thursday.

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Why is Joe Gibbs Racing suing Chris Gabehart?

In their filing, JGR alleges that after demanding additional authority within the team, which was rebuffed by Joe Gibbs, Gabehart "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".

As a result of that, 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.

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.

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What next?

Gabehart and his legal team will now have their chance to respond to the allegations in the filing, as outlined above, with either a formal answer or motion to dismiss the complaint.

This response is where Gabehart can address the allegations, assert defenses if applicable, or even ask the court to dismiss claims outright.

This case comes just a few months after the sport of NASCAR was engulfed in a major lawsuit against 23XI Racing that went to court in December and was settled after a 14-month legal battle.

This time, NASCAR themselves are not involved, but the sport itself is once again in the headlines for the wrong reasons.

Oval Insider has contacted Spire Motorsports for comment.

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