Joe Gibbs Racing files $8M lawsuit against ex-competition director

Joe Gibbs Racing, in a lawsuit filed Thursday in the Western District of North Carolina, accused its former competition director, Chris Gabehart, of sharing confidential information and trade secrets with a competing team.

The suit seeks damages of at least $8 million.

Gabehart put in 13 years at JGR, including a lengthy stint as Denny Hamlin's crew chief and more recently as the director of competition. His base salary last year was $1 million before bonuses, per motorsport.com.

His departure was announced late last year, with JGR accusing Gabehart of scheming to use its information to aid Spire Motorsports, which was offering him the job of chief motorsports officer.

According to motorsport.com, a JGR investigation found that Gabehart set up a folder on his computer, shared to his personal cloud storage, that listed team details including salaries and performance reviews of drivers, crew chiefs and pit crews.

JGR alleges that Gabehart looked at those files in the midst of finalizing his departure from the team on the same day he had a meeting with Spire co-owner Jeff Dickerson.

According to the lawsuit, "Until November 10, 2025, Defendant served as one of JGR's most senior leaders with respect to all competitive aspects of the business. After his demands for additional authority were rebuffed by JGR's owner, Defendant immediately 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 suit states that Gabehart met with JGR owner Joe Gibbs on Nov. 6, with the former NFL coach refusing to "give Defendant carte blanche authority over all racing decisions."

The sides subsequently began discussing separation terms, with JGR maintaining, "Under those terms, Defendant would have been permitted to work for another NASCAR team, provided that he agreed not to solicit key employees and contractors and that he cooperated in returning JGR equipment and information."

However, JGR alleges that Gabehart, "using his personal cell phone, took at least twenty photos of his laptop screen" that contained confidential information, adding, "Defendant accessed and interacted with the Spire Folder on November 12, 13, 15, 23, 25, 26, 27, and December 2 of 2025 -- the same day he met with Jeff Dickerson."

--Field Level Media