UPDATE: Chris Gabehart posted a statement to X regarding the allegations Joe Gibbs Racing claimed against him.
“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,” Gabehart stated. “I feel compelled to speak out today 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.”
Original post:
Joe Gibbs Racing has filed a lawsuit against its former Competition Director Chris Gabehart, Jordan Bianchi posted on X Feb. 19.
The team alleges that 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,” the complaint stated.
It added that Gabehart allegedly synced proprietary files to a personal folder on Google Drive labeled “Spire.”
Other items the team claims Gabehart retained were race setup documents, analytics reports, payroll data, driver compensation figures, and sponsorship revenue information.
JGR believes it’s “entitled to injunctive relief and judgment against Defendant (Gabehart) in an amount to be determined at the trial of this action and presently believed to exceed $8,000,000 for compensatory and other damages, doubled damages, and attorneys’ fees.”
Before Gabehart was Competition Director at JGR, he served as Denny Hamlin‘s crew chief from 2019-2024.
Joy joined Frontstretch in 2019 as a NASCAR DraftKings writer, expanding to news and iRacing coverage in 2020. She's currently an assistant editor and involved with photos, social media and news editing. A California native, Joy was raised watching motorsports and started watching NASCAR extensively in 2001. She earned her B.A. degree in Liberal Studies at California State University Bakersfield in 2010.
Surely chris gabehart is smarter then that to take all of that info from jgr. That is not legal in any business and im sure his contract with jgr states as much or it damn sure should have. I doubt jgr is that stupid.
Wow, I wouldn’t think Gabehart would leave a trail like that and I really don’t believe he or spires cares about salaries or sponsorship. He would have setup knowledge in his head. And putting it all on Google drive labeled spires seems like some dummy set that all up. I’m going to wait and see. Don’t know the man but I don’t think he’s that dumb.
Agree. This sounds like a B movie plot. Will be curious if this suit proceeds very far, and if so, what the facts turn out to be.
Yeah I agree with the posters. This doesn’t pass the smell test even remotely. This guy was running a lot of the operation at JGR, so he’s not stupid. I find it hard to believe that if he was stealing something that he would leave an easy trail like that. A Google Drive folder called “Spire”? GTFOH