Joe Gibbs Racing seeks to amend Spire, Chris Gabehart lawsuit

Joe Gibbs Racing is requesting an amended refiling of its lawsuit against Spire Motorsports and Chris Gabehart.

The original lawsuit was filed against Gabehart, who was previously JGR's competition director, and Spire on Feb. 24, three days after he left to be Spire's Chief Motorsports Officer. Joe Gibbs Racing is seeking $8 million in damages for a violation of a non-compete provision.

The requested amended filing with the Western District of North Carolina and judge Susan C. Rodriguez adds that "misappropriated trade secreted competition data" taken by Gabehart when he joined Spire has led to the racing organization's improved success this season.

"Spire's decision to create a bespoke and intentionally misleading title and role for Gabehart and hire him to that role was not motivated by a desire to further its competitive interests fairly," Joe Gibbs Racing's amended filing adds. "Rather, Spire decision to employ Gabehart was motivated by a desire to compete unfairly against JGR and to intentionally harm JGR's competitive interests through unlawful means."

Spire has found greater success in the NASCAR Cup Series this season after hiring Gabehart. Spire driver Carson Hocevar is sitting in sixth after securing his first career NASCAR victory -- and Spire's first NASCAR win since 2019 -- April 26 at Talladega. Daniel Suarez, a new Spire driver this season, is in 13th in the standings. Neither of last year's Spire drivers finished better than 23rd in last season's standings.

"This sudden improvement in Spire's Cup Series performance of course comes on the heels of Gabehart misappropriating JGR's Confidential Information and Trade Secrets and providing Spire the same or similar services he provided JGR in the last year," the amended filing says.

The original filing claimed that Gabehart took multiple files off JGR's servers and saved them to his personal computer before leaving to join Spire. While this has been confirmed to have occurred by the court, there's no proven evidence that any of that private information was shared with Spire, leaving the racing organization questioning why it is included as a co-defendant in this case.

--Field Level Media