In a Wednesday night time authorized submitting, Joe Gibbs Racing says Chris Gabehart was not in a position to solely adjust to the expedited discovery order issued by the Western District of North Carolina attributable to textual content messages he deleted previous to the lawsuit introduced in opposition to him.
Moreover, JGR believes it has been in a position to assemble a story that reveals its former competitors director ‘instantly operationalized’ commerce secrets and techniques for the use at Spire Motorsports whereas below a restrictive covenant.
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In italics beneath is language taken instantly from the Joe Gibbs Racing submitting:
“That proof reveals Gabehart didn’t merely take JGR’s commerce secrets and techniques—he instantly operationalized them for Spire’s profit, creating an in depth ‘Focus Plan’ referencing the very classes of misappropriated supplies, replicating JGR’s proprietary analytics instruments for Spire’s use, and apparently actively collaborating in Spire’s NASCAR race-day operations whereas nonetheless topic to his restrictive covenant.
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“Equally troubling, Gabehart has now admitted the deletion of an unknown variety of responsive textual content messages with Spire’s co-owner, Jeff Dickerson— communications deleted within the days instantly following his misappropriation—depriving JGR of important proof and warranting an hostile inference that the deleted messages would have additional implicated each Defendants within the joint misappropriation of JGR’s commerce secrets and techniques. In brief, the cumulative document amply justifies broad injunctive aid—coupled with court-ordered monitoring—can defend JGR from the ‘risk’ of irreparable hurt that continues to unfold.”
Particularly, Joe Gibbs Racing is asking the court docket to mandate that Spire and Gabehart element precisely what he’s doing in his function as Chief Motorsports Officer to be able to show that they’re at the moment in compliance with a slim momentary restraining order.
That TRO permits Gabehart to be employed by Spire, however not conduct any enterprise wherein there can be overlap in his earlier duties as JGR competitors director. Joe Gibbs Racing additionally continues to contend that Gabehart mainly by no means give up in a manner that might allow a one-week non-compete clause.
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For his half, Gabehart says JGR was in violation of their contract collectively when it stopped paying him. JGR says it stopped paying him upon the conviction that Gabehart was a threat for sharing its protected commerce secrets and techniques with Spire Motorsports.
Total, and this might be debated in entrance of Choose Susan C. Rodriguez on Thursday, Joe Gibbs Racing is looking for over $8 million in damages from Gabehart and Spire and can also be looking for a preliminary injunction order that might cease them from working collectively instantly.
Joe Gibbs Racing has additionally now formally requested the court docket for an expedited schedule to achieve discovery and a trial sooner as to type this out earlier than the top of the 2026 Cup Collection season.
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For a lot of this litigation course of over the previous month, Joe Gibbs Racing has challenged the credibility of Gabehart by way of authorized responses that proprietary knowledge was not given to Spire as a part of his hiring at Spire.
JGR says the deleted messages add to that narrative.
“In response to JGR’s expedited discovery requests, Gabehart admitted that he deleted ‘textual content messages with Mr. Dickerson, the Spire co-owner, previous to November 15, 2025,’ rendering them ‘not obtainable right now.’ The timing of this deletion is telling. Gabehart deleted these communications the week after misappropriating JGR’s commerce secrets and techniques on November 7, 2025 — and he accessed his ‘Spire’ Google Drive folder on that exact same day, November 15. This sequence of occasions — misappropriation, adopted days later by handbook and selective deletion of communications with the co-owner of the very firm to which the stolen info would have such worth— justifies JGR’s request for an injunction to guard in opposition to threatened misappropriation, a declare acknowledged below each federal and North Carolina commerce secret legislation.”
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In line with the submitting, Gabehart conceded that ‘at the least a type of texts can be responsive’ to the subject material as ordered by Choose Rodriguez final week. Gabehart stated he deleted the texts ‘as a result of there was no risk of litigation on the time.’
As a part of discovery, JGR procured textual content messages between Gabehart and Dickerson from November 18 discussing the potential of a lawsuit. In different phrases, Gabehart appears to recommend a chance that his conduct might turn out to be a authorized matter across the identical time.
From the submitting:
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“Right here, the surviving texts present that, by at the least November 18, 2025—contemporaneous with the November 15 deletion—each Gabehart and Dickerson had been discussing a possible lawsuit, rendering litigation moderately foreseeable by each defendants. GABEHART00047 (mentioning “settlement talks” and a “[l]awsuit”). As such, he both anticipated his actions would finally be found and deleted the messages to get rid of proof central to the dispute—the essence of spoliation, or he believed he might keep away from being caught and deleted them as a part of a scheme to cut back the chance of publicity. In both state of affairs, he can not now invoke the ensuing evidentiary void as a protect.”
JGR says it acquired no harmless rationalization from Gabehart, particularly when paired together with his determination on November 7 to {photograph} commerce secrets and techniques from a JGR pc onto his private cellphone.
The Gibbs crew stated Gabehart additionally had cause to imagine that JGR would reply to commerce theft attributable to a 2024 incident wherein engineer Jeff Curtis was accused of taking commerce secrets and techniques to Richard Childress Racing.
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These causes, as detailed in a declaration written by JGR competitors director Wally Brown, as at the moment redacted and sealed from public consumption.
All instructed, JGR says it was not in a position to adequately uncover Gabehart to its satisfaction based mostly on the order issued by the choose final week. It has requested Gabehart to show over further paperwork or communications, however these efforts had been met with a response from their authorized crew that they had been client-attorney privileged.
The choose additionally solely allowed expedited discovery in opposition to Gabehart and never Spire executives like Dickerson, co-owner Dan Towriss or president Invoice Anthony.
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That is half and parcel to why JGR desires an expedited path to trial so it may additionally reached the conventional discovery course of quicker too and attain a decision earlier than the top of the season to reduce any injury doubtlessly being accomplished to them.
Additionally, JGR believes the deleted texts had been deleted for a really particular authorized objective.
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“Gabehart’s deliberate destruction of proof each factually and legally warrants an hostile inference that the deleted communications had been damaging to each him and Spire.”
Alleged misconduct
Joe Gibbs Racing says Gabehart started to create a technique plan for Spire inside 15 days of ceasing his duties for JGR and receiving a suggestion from Spire.
That focus plan, which is at the moment below public seal, is in a textual content message titled GABEHART00092.
“That doc features as a roadmap for leveraging JGR’s confidential info, expressly referencing particular classes of paperwork Gabehart misappropriated from JGR, together with setup procedures, CC (Crew Chief) audits, driver debriefs, and efficiency analytics.”
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In his redacted declaration, Wally Brown says that plan ‘displays extremely delicate commerce secrets and techniques’ that JGR developed over years of expertise and knowledge assortment. Then, come January, JGR accuses him of implementing that commerce knowledge.
“In January 2026, Gabehart then created a Spire spreadsheet that intently replicates JGR’s proprietary race-performance analytics software.”
JGR says that spreadsheet has Spire utilizing JGR terminology and approaches and did so by the season opening Daytona 500.
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“The resemblance just isn’t coincidental; it displays the direct migration of JGR’s trade-secret framework to Spire—conferring a direct aggressive benefit to Spire that’s grounded in stolen info. Put merely, JGR “finds itself within the place of a coach, one in all whose gamers has left, playbook in hand, to affix the opposing crew earlier than the large sport.”
The timeline was beforehand established however Joe Gibbs Racing once more maintains, by means of longtime engineer and crew chief Todd Berrier, that Gabehart was speaking with Towriss as early as October.
Gabehart denies that.
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Joe Gibbs Racing is now accusing Gabehart of operating ‘compensation projections’ for Spire in a file known as ‘My Lower’ as represented in sealed found textual content message GABEHART00029.
Spire has filed quite a few declarations and documentation that signifies that Gabehart signed a non-disclosure type that stops him from sharing JGR knowledge with Spire. Dickerson has stated he would not want nor need JGR knowledge as a result of they’ve an alliance with Hendrick Motorsports.
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JGR accused Spire on Wednesday of placing on a present for the general public.
“On February 11, 2026, as JGR ready to hunt emergency aid, however earlier than this motion was filed on February 19, 2026, the expedited discovery reveals Gabehart and Spire’s co-owner exchanged textual content messages strategizing over the potential lawsuit. In these messages, Dickerson explicitly described the request for emergency aid as signaling that ‘it’s on,’ and Gabehart later remarked that the one remaining situation with the employment settlement was how you can body language referencing JGR ‘given all of this.’ This admission means that the February 16, 2026, Confidentiality and Non-Disclosure Settlement was not a bona fide safeguard, however a reactive doc rapidly assembled as soon as litigation grew to become inevitable and designed to fabricate the looks of compliance moderately than defend JGR’s pursuits.”
On indemnity
Earlier on Thursday, Spire president Invoice Anthony posted a declaration that claimed his crew is now paying for Gabehart’s authorized charges and that doing so was by no means a part of their settlement.
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On February 22, Dickerson texted Gabehart that ‘everybody (was) excited to see (Gabehart’s response) to the lawsuit and in addition acknowledged that Spire was ‘within the boat.’ Gabehart responded that the help meant ‘the world’ to him.
Once more, the context is difficult to totally confirm as a result of the complete dialog is redacted and below seal.
Joe Gibbs Racing has beforehand painted Gabehart as being below the monetary authorized assist of Spire attributable to his google searches of ‘indemnity’ in November.
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Protecting shut tabs
Chris Gabehart was at Darlington Raceway all weekend in each the Spire Motorsports Truck Collection and Cup Collection storage areas on Friday and Sunday.
Motorsport.com took discover of that as nicely.
The presence of Gabehart sitting within the stands earlier than the race drew the suspicion of Joe Gibbs Racing Vice President and Chief Business Officer Eric Schaffer as nicely. From his declaration:
“Mr. Gabehart is carrying a personalized two-way radio which is the machine groups use to speak amongst crew chiefs, spotters, drivers, and presumably race engineers throughout races, together with non-public channels that can not be picked up by race followers or different groups. It is a totally different machine from a typical public ‘scanner’ radio the place race followers can pay attention to some spotters and crew chiefs discuss with one another and with the drivers.
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“Along with receiving this {photograph} the day after the Goodyear 400, I’ve fielded quite a few studies from people that had been within the storage space at Darlington that Mr. Gabehart was in storage space on the conclusion of the race talking with Spire Motorsports staff in regards to the race behind their race haulers.”
What’s the level? From the JGR submitting:
“Gabehart’s alternative to look at the race from the grandstands, moderately than from the crew suite or alongside Spire personnel—as can be anticipated given his function—additional helps the inference that he was making an attempt to keep away from discover. His repeated attendance at and participation in race-day actions for Spire, together with in areas and communication implies that would enable him to debate race technique in actual time, underscores the upcoming risk of misappropriation of JGR’s commerce secrets and techniques given race day is strictly the context wherein JGR’s competitors methods could also be employed.
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Additional, Gabehart has the flexibility to convey this info in a manner verbally by radio or in particular person, in methods which are nearly unrecordable and undetectable. These circumstances, mixed with Gabehart’s demonstrated credibility points and former efforts to make use of JGR info for Spire’s profit, necessitate a reporting requirement to mitigate the specter of misappropriation of JGR’s commerce secrets and techniques—Gabehart can’t be merely trusted to conform.”
Nonetheless, to be honest to the details, Gabehart was not hiding behind the haulers on Friday or Sunday after these races and was as an alternative having very public conversations in the course of the storage for the world to see, saying ‘howdy’ to anybody that stated howdy to him.
What subsequent?
The 2 sides will meet in court docket on Thursday morning to argue over the preliminary injunction movement wherein Joe Gibbs Racing seeks to have Gabehart stop working for Spire, or for a minimal, report his each obligation to the court docket as to make sure there is no such thing as a overlap of duties in query.
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JGR now desires the court docket to expedite the trial course of.
It desires extraordinary Rule 26 discovery conferences and disclosures by April 2 and a trial as quickly as potential. Why?
“An expedited trial date will get rid of pointless delays in discovery and promote an environment friendly decision of the moment dispute.”
The related filings
Joe Gibbs Racing’s full Thursday submitting
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Eric Schaffer’s declaration
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Declaration about Gabehart’s deleted texts
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