In a authorized submitting posted late on Wednesday evening, Spire Motorsports co-owner Jeff Dickerson detailed his lengthy private relationship with Chris Gabehart and expressed deep disappointment within the lawsuit filed in opposition to them by Joe Gibbs Racing.
Previous to crew possession, Dickerson served as an ex-grassroots racer, sports activities agent and spotter, whom finally co-founded the Spire Sports activities+Leisure company alongside TJ Puchyr in 2010. Dickerson has thorough relationships that run the gamut of sports activities and leisure.
That could be a fixed theme over a lot of his authorized rebuttals on this matter with Joe Gibbs Racing over Spire.
This explicit story truly begins with Joe Gibbs Racing hiring longtime NASCAR Cup Collection automobile chief Robert ‘Cheddar’ Smith in April of 2025. Smith was beneath contract with Spire however was launched so he may be part of JGR to serve in that capability with the No. 54 automobile and driver Ty Gibbs,– the grandson of crew proprietor Coach Joe Gibbs.
Dickerson stated he proposed a commerce with JGR over what he thought of a participant to be named later sort of settlement. He came upon that JGR had already been in touch with Smith over future employment so this association may have been mutually helpful.
Dickerson writes:
“Given JGR’s curiosity in Mr. Smith, and on condition that he was beneath an energetic contract with a time period that didn’t expire for a lot of months and in addition topic to a non-compete that might not permit for the instant reduction JGR was looking for for Ty Gibbs, I instructed JGR that if it made a suggestion to Mr. Smith that was acceptable to him and he accepted that provide, Spire would conform to mutually terminate Robert Smith’s contract, which might permit him to start working for JGR instantly—in trade for JGR extending the identical waiver for an worker that Spire would determine sooner or later.
“Mr. Gabehart, on the course of Coach Gibbs and Heather Gibbs, insisted that JGR have the choice to meet the settlement by making a $100,000 cost as an alternative choice to extending a waiver for an worker that Spire would determine sooner or later. I agreed to that proposal, with the understanding that JGR would make good on our deal by the top of 2025.”
Dickerson stated Gibbs by no means did pay the charge or let an identical worker out of their contract to hitch Spire. Over the course of final summer time, JGR successfully changed Tyler Allen with Gabehart as crew chief of the No. 54 crew.
Spire requested JGR if it will let Allen out of his contract so they might rent him in the identical method it launched Smith so he may be part of JGR. Dickerson stated JGR refused and Spire countered with Ryan Towles, the automobile chief changed upon the hiring of Smith, however that was additionally rejected.
Extra from Dickerson, italicized:
“Importantly, Robert Smith, as a automobile chief, was a part of the competitors management arm at Spire, and JGR understood that Spire’s subsequent tried rent from JGR beneath the Commerce Understanding would come from the competitors arm, if not management, from JGR. That didn’t cease JGR from getting into into the Commerce Understanding.”
By October 2025, Dickerson stated he met with Gabehart to ‘catch up’ but additionally to see who from JGR could be obtainable to finish the agreed-upon commerce settlement.
However first, some backstory, as Dickerson says he and Gabehart have been associates for practically twenty years. Whereas working as spotter and agent for Kyle Busch, Dickerson says he put collectively the primary contract for Gabehart to work on the nascent Kyle Busch Motorsports crew.
On the time, Gabehart was a championship-winning Tremendous Late Mannequin driver with an engineering diploma from Purdue College.
“I labored laborious to recruit Mr. Gabehart to Kyle Busch Motorsports and in addition assisted with negotiating his first crew chief contract. I knew that he had a vibrant future due to his technical experience mixed with enterprise acumen. I stayed in touch with Mr. Gabehart from that point to the current day with periodic cellphone calls and casual conferences at varied racetracks. Over the past 16 years, I’ve additionally repeatedly loved meals with Mr. Gabehart to catch up about our careers and life extra usually. I at all times had a very sturdy bond with Mr. Gabehart as a result of each of us had been working diligently to assist begin up Kyle Busch Motorsports in 2009 and 2010.”
So over the course of that dinner in October 2025, Dickerson stated they mentioned their youngsters, pavement late fashions, the present state of the motorsports trade and their private experiences.
The latter is the place, in line with Dickerson, that Gabehart confided issues about the established order at Joe Gibbs Racing, each with the No. 54 automobile and the way he was being deployed in comparison with his expectations upon agreeing to the competitors director position.
“I may inform that Mr. Gabehart didn’t get pleasure from the opportunity of leaving his long-time employer. I knew that Mr. Gabehart had devoted most of his profession throughout greater than a decade to serving JGR. I may inform when he spoke that it pained him to contemplate the opportunity of leaving. I knew then that the office atmosphere at JGR should have been poisonous and unsustainable.”
Dickerson stated he left dinner that evening with no decision on who may very well be despatched again to Spire as a part of the settlement to launch Smith from his contract earlier within the season, both.
Learn Additionally:
Dickerson stated that Gabehart knowledgeable him on November 11 that Joe Gibbs Racing had agreed to a mutual separation on November 6 topic to a one-week non-compete clause. Dickerson expressed curiosity in hiring him.
“Mr. Gabehart said that any future position he took wouldn’t be a lateral transfer. As a substitute, he stated that if he left JGR, he could be searching for a totally totally different position that might current a brand new problem for him. He most definitely had little interest in doing what he was doing for JGR on the time.
“My curiosity in Mr. Gabehart arose from the truth that I wanted an skilled lieutenant to assist me handle Spire’s wide-ranging enterprise affairs. Previous to hiring Mr. Gabehart, I (as co-owner of Spire) had been managing the day-to-day operations of our racing applications and diversified ancillary companies. This included every thing from accounting to human assets, journey, and competition-related duties throughout quite a few totally different groups, racing sequence, and companies. I additionally had the position of interfacing with TWG Motorsports, the group that owns a majority stake in Spire.”
Dickerson recounted a narrative wherein driver Daniel Suarez requested ‘who’s Chris Gabehart changing,’ and the co-owner stated, ‘me.’
Within the declaration, Dickerson wrote that Gabehart instructed him ‘someday in mid-November’ is when Joe Gibbs Racing had stopped paying him. Dickerson thought JGR would maintain Gabehart on some type of ‘gardening go away’ and maintain him on payroll topic to the conclusion of their separation settlement negotiations.
Dickerson stated he felt compelled to ‘act quick’ to signal Gabehart , particularly if he was not being paid by Joe Gibbs Racing, or threat dropping him to a different group. This led to the assembly on December 2 that was captured by a non-public investigator beneath the make use of of Joe Gibbs Racing.
Learn Additionally:
The dinner befell on the Barcelona Burger and Beer Backyard in Mooresville, North Carolina adjoining to the Toyota Gazoo Racing Storage.
Why is that an essential distinction to Dickerson?
“The Toyota GR Storage is a excessive efficiency motorsports testing storage utilized by Toyota, which is in a technical alliance with JGR. Employees from the Toyota GR Storage routinely eat lunch at Barcelona Burger and Beer Backyard. I had completely no issues about any of these staff 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’s nothing that forestalls me from consuming lunch with a pal.
Unbeknownst to me, JGR had employed a non-public investigator to observe 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 study {that a} competitor in our trade had employed somebody to observe its former worker round. I can’t stress this sufficient: It’s extraordinary for a corporation in our enterprise to rent a non-public investigator to observe round any worker, not to mention a former worker. In my twenty-five years of expertise on this trade, I’ve by no means as soon as heard of a crew doing so.
“Regardless of JGR being effectively conscious that Spire was recruiting Mr. Gabehart as early as December 2, 2025, nobody at JGR ever contacted me to assert that Mr. Gabehart was topic to an relevant non-compete (till JGR filed this lawsuit). Even through the forensic examination course of described beneath, nobody at JGR ever contacted me to assert that Mr. Gabehart was topic to an relevant non-compete.”
Dickerson stated that nobody from Joe Gibbs Racing ever contacted him in December to tell Spire that Gabehart was beneath any type of non-compete settlement nor had been any conversations initiated following the implementation of a forensic evaluation.
Gabehart has beforehand stated that he paid out of pocket for JGR to look at his private units for any proof that he continued to retailer commerce secrets and techniques obtained from firm servers.
Learn Additionally:
Joe Gibbs Racing, for its half, didn’t pay out the remaining stability of what it appeared to owe Gabehart as a result of it as an alternative filed a lawsuit alleging a ‘brazen scheme’ to steal proprietary competitors secrets and techniques with the potential of sharing it with Spire.
Dickerson says he doesn’t need nor want any information from Joe Gibbs Racing because of what his crew pays for and receives from Hendrick Motorsports and Chevrolet.
“To be clear, Spire by no means requested for, didn’t need or want, and doesn’t need or want any info from Mr. Gabehart that was the property of JGR. Spire has its personal technical alliance with Hendrick Motorsports, who holds the Cup Collection file for wins at 320 and 15 championships, and in any other case has no want for JGR’s info. Spire additionally works with Common Motors for information functions. Spire additionally has its personal drivers, its personal tools, its personal crews, its personal engineers, its personal crew chiefs, its personal automobile and engine producers, its personal sponsors, its personal funding sources, and its personal technique.
“Spire is a Chevrolet crew with a special physique and totally different engine from what JGR races in. The outerbody and underbody work collectively, such that info from JGR wouldn’t be a simple carry over for efficiency. Spire receives help from Common Motors which provides all of Spire’s aerodynamics information, instruments and simulation. Spire shouldn’t be in charge of these applications and may solely make suggestions for enhancements. Consequently, any information from JGR could be virtually unattainable to make use of. Moreover, within the Cup Collection particularly, optimum engineering modifications on a day-to-day and week-by-week foundation, such that info that’s not present wouldn’t be related or helpful to Spire. Spire obtains its engines from Hendrick Motorsports and isn’t in charge of any growth, which is one more reason why info and information from JGR wouldn’t be helpful or related. Common Motors and Hendrick Motorsports are the latest champions within the Cup Collection, so Spire believes that it already has entry to the perfect info obtainable. Spire, subsequently, believes that it already has entry to any info that can permit it to be a profitable crew, and isn’t searching for info from JGR. Finally, I imagine that any JGR info obtainable may truly hurt Spire—we’ve completely no technique to validate outdoors info as a result of on this sport the producers management aerodynamics and tire testing information.”
As has been beforehand said, Dickerson stated Gabehart signed a non-disclosure settlement with Spire that prevented him legally from sharing any protected commerce secrets and techniques from JGR with anybody at Spire. Mutually, Spire signed an identical settlement with Gabehart that it will not solicit him for proprietary or protected info.
“Spire would by no means use a competitor’s commerce secrets and techniques for its profit, and would aggressively shield its personal commerce secrets and techniques within the occasion they had been distributed to or shared with one other crew. That’s not a line that I or any of my fellow homeowners within the Cup Collection storage are keen to cross. Consequently, I’ve by no means even conceptualized of the opportunity of utilizing one other crew’s commerce secrets and techniques for Spire’s profit. To this point and so far as I do know, nobody at Spire has ever seen the paperwork that Mr. Gabehart allegedly took from JGR.”
Dickerson stated he waited for the forensic investigation of Gabehart’s units to play itself out earlier than making the rent, with on-boarding going down over the course of February 16-17.
Spire additionally despatched a letter to Joe Gibbs Racing’s authorized crew on February 11, providing a forensic evaluation of pertinent Spire recordsdata to indicate it had not retained any proprietary information. That overture by no means, seemingly, obtained a response and JGR as an alternative sued Gabehart the very subsequent week.
Total, Dickerson takes excessive exception to being sued, and is offended on the allegations and assertions.
“JGR’s repeated assaults on Spire’s integrity should not effectively taken. Spire and JGR are colleagues on this trade. Each groups are entitled to respect. Each groups are on an equal footing and have the identical charters that permit them to compete.
“This lawsuit is an effort to stifle Spire because it makes an attempt to construct a crew that, in the future, may rack up the variety of wins that JGR touts. Quite than permitting that competitors to play out on the monitor, and relatively than contemplating what introduced JGR right here within the first place, JGR has chosen to assault, disparage, and demean Spire.
“JGR’s lack of expertise and potential lack of sponsorships is an inside drawback, not a Spire drawback. That could be a troublesome proposition for JGR to just accept. Finally, JGR misplaced a star worker as a result of it couldn’t ship him the office expertise and position that he desired. And, in the long run, as I perceive JGR’s publicly-filed contract with Mr. Gabehart and the details, he was free to take employment anyplace on the time Spire employed him.”
Dickerson took related exception to the claims that Spire was making an attempt to poach Joe Gibbs Racing sponsors. Spire filed a number of reveals on Wednesday that characterised overtures from the likes of COO Stephen D’Hondt and Enterprise Improvement Supervisor Sieradzan as networking check-ins.
He then accused Joe Gibbs Racing as being probably the most proficient entities at poaching sponsors from smaller groups.
“JGR regularly pursues sponsors who it is aware of are already beneath contract with different groups. In reality, simply this previous weekend, JGR was brazenly pursuing a sponsor who presently sponsors a special crew within the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Elements Collection. If JGR obtains that sponsor and will get the sponsor to maneuver to JGR, it’s going to current an existential risk for that crew.
“For example, I’m conscious that JGR known as certainly one of Spire’s anchor sponsors inside the final 12 months and provided to match what the sponsor was paying to Spire or to permit them to pay much less in the event that they selected to sponsor JGR. Finally, that sponsor selected to stay with Spire.
“This conduct is a part of the racing enterprise. It might be seen as overly aggressive, however there’s nothing untoward about it. Sponsors are free to decide on which groups they sponsor, and groups are free to pursue their most popular sponsors.”
One of many many recordsdata that Gabehart had synced to his private Google Drive concerned JGR’s sponsorship pricing construction and technique, one thing Dickerson stated he additionally doesn’t want because of his years proudly owning a crew and double that proudly owning an company that has funneled sponsors to groups that embrace Gibbs.
“To be completely clear, Spire doesn’t want any sponsorship info from JGR. Spire has its personal sponsors and its personal strategic sponsorship initiatives. Additionally, we’ve eyes—we will see on the facet of automobiles and at tracks and in promoting which sponsors are sponsoring JGR. We don’t want Chris Gabehart to inform us something about who JGR’s sponsors are, identical to JGR doesn’t want Robert Smith to inform JGR who Spire’s sponsors are.”
You may learn the total declaration from Jeff Dickerson beneath.
We would like your opinion!
What would you prefer to see on Motorsport.com?
– The Motorsport.com Workforce
