Joe Gibbs Racing has amended its lawsuit in opposition to Chris Gabehart and has now prolonged these claims in opposition to Spire Motorsports whereas additionally asking the Western District of North Carolina to implement a restraining order to forestall the pairing from proceed working collectively.
Spire Motorsports confirmed over the weekend at Atlanta Motor Speedway that it has employed Gabehart, a longtime engineer turned crew chief and one yr competitors director at Joe Gibbs Racing, to function Chief Motorsports Officer.
JGR sued Gabehart final week — alleging a violation of non-compete agreements and a ‘brazen scheme’ to steal proprietary competitors commerce secrets and techniques and take it with him to Spire when overtures for a de facto promotion had been declined by staff proprietor Joe Gibbs.
Joe Gibbs Racing declare that Gabehart created a folder titled ‘Spire’ from his work laptop and synced the data throughout the staff’s database to his private Google Drive. The staff claims Gabehart took photographs of set-up info on his private telephone for the aim of taking it with him to Spire.
It accused Gabehart of accessing JGR’s database even on a day through which he met with Spire Motorsports staff co-owner Jeff Dickerson. Via the primary week of the litigation, JGR had not named Spire as a defendant however did so on Tuesday night time with the amended submitting.
The brand new claims in opposition to Spire are detailed under, precise quotes from the submitting, italicized for readability:
“Spire knowingly, deliberately, unjustifiably, and in dangerous religion induced Gabehart to breach his contract with JGR by (1) soliciting and hiring him to work for Spire, and/or (2) requesting, encouraging, or in any other case inducing him to reveal or use Plaintiff’s commerce secrets and techniques or confidential info.
“As a direct and proximate results of Spire’s misconduct, Plaintiff has suffered and continues to undergo damages in an quantity to be confirmed at trial, and irreparable hurt by the use of, amongst different issues, lack of aggressive benefit, and lack of confidential info.”
As a part of the expanded lawsuit, Joe Gibbs Racing is asking the court docket for a restraining order that stops Gabehart from working at Spire Motorsports if in any capability much like that of his function as competitors director final yr but in addition deploying any ‘commerce secrets and techniques’ acquired throughout his time along with his earlier employer. JGR is asking the court docket to pressure Gabehart to return any proprietary materials he could have in his possession.
Joe Gibbs Racing states within the filings that it’s going to undergo irreparable hurt as a result of Gabehart and the alleged knowledge he took with him to Spire getting used to copy their set-ups as a result of how competitively comparable everybody’s NextGen automobiles are.
“As a result of all groups now race the identical automobile and acquire automobile parts from the identical suppliers, understanding solely a small portion of the main points of how a competitor units up its automobiles would enable different groups to extrapolate on that info and recreate a profitable automobile setup.
“Because of this, automobile setup, analytics, and race technique have turn out to be more and more essential as aggressive differentiators in NASCAR because the introduction of the NextGen automobile in 2022. This info is extremely guarded.
“Consequently, such misuse, disclosure, or dissemination of JGR’s Confidential Info and Commerce Secrets and techniques would lead to impaired skill to compete, misplaced earnings and enterprise alternatives, and reputational hurt, amongst different accidents.”
The whole amended submitting might be discovered under with further particulars under that.
In submitting the movement for injunctive aid and a restraining order, Joe Gibbs Racing additionally said that neither Spire nor Gabehart are voluntarily consenting, and thus each must be issued by Choose Matthew Orso.
“Counsel for JGR has conferred with counsel for Gabehart regarding the aid requested within the Movement, and counsel for Gabehart has indicated Gabehart doesn’t consent to the aid requested within the Movement. Equally, JGR has conferred with Spire regarding the aid requested within the Movement, and Spire doesn’t consent to the aid requested within the Movement.”
The restraining order and injunctive aid movement might be discovered under, with further info under that.
The amended grievance and restraining order movement additionally included written declarations from JGR competitors director Wally Brown, who resumed the function he held earlier than briefly turning it over to Gabehart final yr but in addition chief monetary officer Tim Carmichael.
The third declaration is from Clark C. Walton, a ‘forensics knowledgeable for Reliance Forensics, and a licensed legal professional who was retained by JGR for the Gabehart case and oversaw the evaluation of the information that led to this lawsuit.
Walton stated his agency noticed the next Google search historical past
Moreover, Walton cited the next discoveries:
“Reliance additionally noticed synced exercise on the JGR Pc associated to a Google Drive account related to Gabehart’s private Gmail handle. The Recognized Synced Google Drive seems to have been synced with the JGR Pc. The Recognized Synced Google Drive account contained a folder named ‘Spire’ which contained a subfolder named ‘Previous Setups.’ Reliance didn’t entry the contents of The Recognized Synced Google Drive account itself as a part of its preliminary assessment of the JGR Pc. Reliance noticed interactions with the Spire Folder on November 12, 13, 15, 23, 25, 26, 27 and December 2, 2025 as said under. The Final Considered Time proven on this report typically signifies that point {that a} folder on file was final opened.”
Walton detailed alleged entry of ‘https://apps.jgrcloud.com/,’ ‘https://analytics.joegibbsracing.com,’ ‘https://joegibbsracing-my.sharepoint.com,’ and ‘https://trdhydra.toyota.com/,’ in mid to late November.
The complete Walton declaration might be discovered under.
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Joe Gibbs Racing additionally responded to Gabehart’s assertion that ’emphatically denied’ the allegations.
“The assertion was materially false and deceptive. First, the forensic knowledgeable engaged by JGR confirmed that Defendant had taken JGR’s Confidential Info and Commerce Secrets and techniques, together with monetary info Gabehart expressly denied taking up December 17, 2025.
Gabehart has stated he’ll file a response within the coming days.
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