In a late Wednesday night time sequence of court docket filings, Chris Gabehart and his retained attorneys responded to or in any other case addressed the continued authorized claims made towards him and Spire Motorsports by Joe Gibbs Racing.
The primary doc filed to the docket was a second first-person declaration through which the previous engineer, crew chief and competitors director made the case that his function as Chief Motorsports Officer has no overlap along with his earlier place at JGR.
On this letter, Gabehart detailed in line-item style all of the issues he did final 12 months as Joe Gibbs Racing competitors director and his nine-race stint as crew chief for Ty Gibbs and the No. 54 crew, which was considered one of causes he grew to become dissatisfied along with his employment.
Gabehart mentioned Spire already has three crew chiefs and a contest director in Matt McCall. He wrote that Spire has a technical director and head of auto optimization and likewise doesn’t serve in these capacities both.
As an alternative, the 44-year-old cited how far more expansive the Spire Motorsports umbrella is in comparison with Joe Gibbs Racing with groups that compete in Cup, Grime Dash Automotive, Grime Late Fashions and Pavement Late Fashions. That is along with dad or mum firm TWG Motorsports proudly owning Andretti World and the Basic Motors Formulation 1 crew.
His phrases are italicized under:
“The breadth of Spire’s racing program is central to my function as Spire’s Chief Motorsports Officer. Whereas my place at JGR was confined to NASCAR Cup Sequence competitors, my tasks at Spire deal with strategic initiatives and operational oversight throughout Spire’s complete multi-series motorsports enterprise. My job additionally includes interfacing frequently with TWG Motorsports groups to debate and develop frequent greatest practices amongst the groups. That is at the moment achieved by periodic conferences and occasion visitation by crew principals from every self-discipline that encourage communication and statement of all the types of racing within the TWG Motorsports platform.
“My present function at Spire sits on the government degree and encompasses strategic oversight throughout all of Spire’s racing applications, not simply the NASCAR Cup Sequence. This structural distinction is critical. At JGR, I reported inside the NASCAR Cup Sequence hierarchy. At Spire, I function on the government management degree with duty spanning a number of racing sequence and organizational features. The scope and seniority of my place at Spire includes duties of a completely completely different character than these I carried out at JGR.”
To wit, Gabehart says the function of ‘competitors director’ was ‘organizationally parallel’ to positions like Manufacturing Director, Aero Director and Technical Director.
At Spire, Gabehart says he’s working in direction of large image initiatives that transcend NASCAR like concentrating on disciplines to broaden into, sustaining Spire branding and competitors requirements throughout all the assorted groups beneath the company umbrella, working with Chevrolet and Hendrick Motorsports to amass assets and change into an asset with each.
His wage has been redacted as a part of the general public dealing with model of the declaration.
Gabehart additionally continued to claim that he made clear in writing the explanations he was leaving Joe Gibbs Racing, one thing JGR mentioned was not made clear sufficient or in its personal particular person memo to senior management. He maintains the truth that Joe Gibbs Racing even briefly started to work out the small print with him on a separation settlement is proof of that understanding.
In different phrases, Gabehart asserts that JGR was in violation of its contract with him somewhat than the opposite means round as they stopped paying him. Gabehart was a free agent so far as he was involved, legally.
“Mr. Carmichael (Tim, JGR Chief Monetary Officer) notes that I’ve not signed an entire mutual launch settlement with JGR. That’s correct solely within the restricted sense that the events didn’t in the end finalize a separation settlement. After November 10, 2025, I remained engaged in good-faith discussions after which, in December, responded to JGR’s demand letter by agreeing to a complete forensic evaluation designed and directed by JGR. The events’ failure to finalize a launch was the results of JGR’s unilateral determination to vary course, not as a result of I did not proceed beneath the Part 6, Paragraph 2 pathway we had been following in November.”
That forensic evaluation didn’t present any proof that Gabehart shared any proprietary commerce data with Spire Motorsports however the suspicion that he might have is what prompted this authorized motion. For his or her half, the Gabehart and Spire camps preserve that is punitive motion ‘for daring to depart.’
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In truth, Joe Gibbs Racing has additionally motioned the court docket to permit for expedited discovery, a extra fast model of the method that enables each events of a lawsuit to acquire non-public paperwork and communications pertinent to the authorized grievance.
Extra on that under.
Gabehart additionally refuted the declaration from longtime Joe Gibbs Racing competitors worker Todd Berrier stating a dialog between them indicating that Gabehart had first met Spire co-owner Dan Towriss a couple of job final October.
“It asserts that on or about October 21, 2025, I instructed him that I had a gathering with Spire co-owner Dan Towriss a couple of potential job and that I later texted him confirming that I had that assembly. Mr. Berrier is mistaken. The primary time I met Mr. Towriss was on February 28, 2026, at an IndyCar race in St. Petersburg, Florida. Any opposite assertion is wrong.”
Towriss additionally submitted a declaration in help of that assertion on Wednesday night time.
“To the perfect of my recollection, I didn’t meet with Mr. Gabehart, both in particular person or nearly, at any time limit in 2025. And, particularly, I didn’t meet with Mr. Gabehart in particular person or nearly on or round October 21, 2025. The primary time I ever met Mr. Gabehart in particular person was on February 28, 2026 on the IndyCar race in St. Petersburg, Florida. The primary time I ever spoke with Mr. Gabehart was throughout a quick cellphone name on January 9, 2026. Throughout that decision, Jeff Dickerson briefly launched me to Mr. Gabehart.We didn’t focus on Mr. Gabehart’s employment with Spire throughout that Name.”
Gabehart additionally addressed the declarations by two Joe Gibbs Racing sponsors that Spire had reached out to basically poach them. Gabehart says he has by no means met these two sponsor representatives nor shared details about their JGR partnerships with Spire.
As for the revelation that Joe Gibbs Racing had spied on him as he met with Spire co-owner Jeff Dickerson over the winter …
“I’ve additionally reviewed the declaration submitted by Ryan Simpson. Mr. Simpson is outwardly a personal investigator who was retained by JGR to conduct surveillance on me. I used to be unaware that JGR was spying on me. I have no idea why JGR was spying on me or for a way lengthy. The assembly with Jeff Dickerson referenced in Mr. Simpson’s declaration was held in public at a restaurant in Mooresville, North Carolina. I used to be not attempting to hide that assembly.”
Dickerson additionally addressed that revelation in his personal declaration on Wednesday night time. He mentioned that he and Gabehart have been buddies for almost 20 years and have met for dinner frequently over that interval. He says he brokered Gabehart’s first NASCAR job whereas launching Kyle Busch Motorsports. On the time, Dickerson was an agent and spotter for Busch.
“On December 2, 2025, Mr. Gabehart and I met once more, this time for lunch at Barcelona Burger and Beer Backyard in Mooresville, North Carolina, which is adjoining to the Toyota Gazoo Racing Storage. We sat down on the desk I’m recognized to take a seat at, at a restaurant that I frequent.
“The Toyota GR Storage is a excessive efficiency motorsports testing storage utilized by Toyota, which is in a technical alliance with JGR. Staff from the Toyota GR Storage routinely eat lunch at Barcelona Burger and Beer Backyard. I had completely no issues about any of these employees seeing me consuming lunch with Mr. Gabehart as a result of I understood that there was no relevant non-compete in place on the time I met with Mr. Gabehart. And, even when a non-compete had been in place, there may be nothing that stops me from consuming lunch with a good friend.
Unbeknownst to me, JGR had employed a personal investigator to comply with Mr. Gabehart round. The non-public investigator apparently took pictures of me consuming lunch with Mr. Gabehart. I used to be shocked and, fairly frankly, disturbed to be taught {that a} competitor in our business had employed somebody to comply with its former worker round. I can’t stress this sufficient: It’s extraordinary for a company in our enterprise to rent a personal investigator to comply with round any worker, not to mention a former worker. In my twenty-five years of expertise on this business, I’ve by no means as soon as heard of a crew doing so.
“Regardless of JGR being nicely conscious that Spire was recruiting Mr. Gabehart as early as December 2, 2025, nobody at JGR ever contacted me to say that Mr. Gabehart was topic to an relevant non-compete (till JGR filed this lawsuit). Even through the forensic examination course of described under, nobody at JGR ever contacted me to say that Mr. Gabehart was topic to an relevant non-compete.”
Gabehart’s full declaration letter will be learn under.
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Expedited discovery responses
Usually, the invention course of begins after each events take part in a Rule 26(f) convention, the place all events concerned in litigation meet to debate settlement choices and negotiate the phrases of which paperwork and communications are topic to the method.
To be granted expedited discovery, a celebration should present ‘good trigger’ or ‘reasonableness’ within the curiosity of justice and the potential for fast hurt within the absence of the method going down.
Successfully, Joe Gibbs Racing says it has causes to consider Gabehart might have shared the aggressive proprietary data he saved on his gadgets to Spire Motorsports as a part of the change of employment.
The authorized crew representing Gabehart disagreed with that conclusion in a Wednesday night time submitting. The separate authorized crew representing Spire additionally disagreed. Their causes had been virtually the identical.
From the Gabehart authorized crew’s submitting:
“The Movement is pointless, untimely, and seeks to bypass the orderly discovery course of that the Federal Guidelines of Civil Process are designed to make sure. JGR has already obtained the very data it claims to want: a complete forensic examination of Mr. Gabehart’s private gadgets, performed by JGR’s personal chosen forensic examiner, pursuant to a protocol drafted by JGR’s personal counsel. That examination established that Mr. Gabehart didn’t transmit, distribute, or share any JGR Confidential Info (as outlined within the Employment Settlement, ECF 8-2). At the moment, there is no such thing as a justification for departing from the standard discovery timeline.”
From the Spire authorized crew’s submitting:
“JGR misunderstands the authorized customary relevant to expedited discovery requests and wholly fails to reveal ‘good trigger’ or the broad, expedited discovery it seeks on this case. Certainly, though expedited discovery is just applicable when a movant could be irreparably harmed by abiding by Rule 26’s typical discovery schedule, JGR has completely did not articulate how it will be irreparably harmed within the absence of expedited discovery, as required. In truth, JGR affirmatively represents that expedited discovery isn’t mandatory right here as a result of its pending Movement for a Preliminary Injunction gives adequate proof for this Court docket to conclude that JGR is prone to succeed on the deserves of its claims, even with out ‘having any entry to expedited discovery.’ Dkt. That concession alone is a adequate motive to disclaim JGR’s movement.”
Moreover, each defendants have requested Choose Susan D Rodriguez, that if she does resolve to grant JGR expedited discovery, that they each be eligible for a similar on Joe Gibbs Racing over when it understood its settlement with Gabehart to have concluded.
As a result of, once more, each Spire and Gabehart say they acted beneath the conviction that there was no relevant non-compete clause.
The Gabehart response lists three causes for reciprocal discovery:
“First, Defendants are entitled to discovery regarding Mr. Gabehart’s compliance with Part 6, Paragraph 2 of the Employment Settlement. JGR has taken the place that Mr. Gabehart didn’t validly train his rights beneath Part 6, and that his termination was ‘for trigger.’ Defendants are entitled to discover JGR’s communications and paperwork referring to Mr. Gabehart’s written discover beneath Part 6, JGR’s analysis of that discover, negotiation of a separation settlement with Mr. Gabehart, JGR’s determination to put Mr. Gabehart on ‘backyard depart,’ JGR’s withholding of wages, and data regarding Mr. Gabehart’s employment standing. These paperwork are solely in JGR’s possession and are straight related as to if any noncompete obligation applies.
“Second, Defendants are entitled to discovery regarding JGR’s inside communications about Mr. Gabehart’s train of his contractual rights. The textual content messages between Mr. Gabehart and Tim Carmichael reveal that JGR management understood Mr. Gabehart was exercising his rights beneath Part 6 and didn’t blame him for doing so. Defendants are entitled to find what different JGR personnel communicated about this topic, and whether or not JGR’s after-the-fact ‘termination for trigger’ was a pretext designed to keep away from the results of Part 6.
Third, Defendants are entitled to discovery regarding JGR’s determination to terminate Mr. Gabehart for trigger after the forensic examination confirmed no misappropriation occurred. The alleged termination discover was not issued till February 9, 2026—three months after Mr. Gabehart exercised his rights beneath Part 6, almost three months after JGR started withholding his wages, and after the forensic examination confirmed no misappropriation. Defendants are entitled to discover the circumstances of this belated termination determination, together with what JGR knew and when.”
Gabehart’s authorized crew writes that if JGR is entitled to expedited discovery from Gabehart, than the inverse can also be true.
Spire’s authorized crew made an identical argument in their very own submitting:
“If, nevertheless, this Court docket concludes that ‘good trigger’ exists to warrant expedited discovery on this case, Defendant respectfully requests discovery be reciprocal in nature and restricted to non-privileged paperwork that bear on the slim, central concern associated to JGR’s pending preliminary injunction movement: whether or not the 18-Month Non-Compete Provision in Gabehart’s employment contract was relevant on the time Spire employed Gabehart. As an alternative of the broad discovery JGR seeks, the Court docket ought to order restricted, focused discovery regarding the circumstances beneath which Mr. Gabehart’s employment with JGR led to November 2025, together with inside JGR communications reflecting how JGR interpreted and responded to the November 6 discover and the way it determined to cease paying Mr. Gabehart.”
What subsequent?
The 2 sides will as soon as once more meet in court docket, earlier than Choose Rodriguez, in Charlotte, North Carolina on Monday morning to expound on the arguments made of their authorized filings over the previous week.
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