Joe Gibbs Racing has amended its lawsuit towards Chris Gabehart and has now prolonged these claims towards Spire Motorsports whereas additionally asking the Western District of North Carolina to implement a restraining order towards them.
Spire Motorsports confirmed over the weekend at Atlanta Motor Speedway that it has employed Gabehart, a longtime engineer turned crew chief and one-year competitors director at Joe Gibbs Racing, to function Chief Motorsports Officer.
JGR sued Gabehart final week — alleging a violation of non-compete agreements and a ‘brazen scheme’ to steal proprietary competitors commerce secrets and techniques and take it with him to Spire when overtures for a de facto promotion had been declined by workforce proprietor Joe Gibbs.
Joe Gibbs Racing claims that Gabehart created a folder titled ‘Spire’ from his work laptop and synced the knowledge inside the workforce’s database to his private Google Drive. The workforce claims Gabehart took pictures of set-up info on his private cellphone for the aim of taking it with him to Spire.
It accused Gabehart of accessing JGR’s database even on a day during which he met with Spire Motorsports workforce co-owner Jeff Dickerson. By the primary week of the litigation, JGR had not named Spire as a defendant however did so on Tuesday evening with the amended submitting.
The brand new claims towards Spire are detailed beneath with precise quotes from the submitting in italics.
“Spire knowingly, deliberately, unjustifiably, and in unhealthy religion induced Gabehart to breach his contract with JGR by (1) soliciting and hiring him to work for Spire, and/or (2) requesting, encouraging, or in any other case inducing him to reveal or use Plaintiff’s commerce secrets and techniques or confidential info.
“As a direct and proximate results of Spire’s misconduct, Plaintiff has suffered and continues to undergo damages in an quantity to be confirmed at trial, and irreparable hurt by means of, amongst different issues, lack of aggressive benefit, and lack of confidential info.”
As a part of the expanded lawsuit, Joe Gibbs Racing is asking the court docket for a restraining order that forestalls Gabehart from working at Spire Motorsports in any capability much like that of his position as competitors director final 12 months but additionally from using any ‘commerce secrets and techniques’ acquired throughout his time along with his earlier employer.
JGR is asking the court docket to drive Gabehart to return any proprietary materials he should still have in his possession.
Joe Gibbs Racing states within the filings that it’s going to undergo irreparable hurt as a result of Gabehart and the alleged information he took with him to Spire getting used to duplicate their set-ups as a result of how competitively related everybody’s NextGen vehicles are.
“As a result of all groups now race the identical automotive and acquire automotive elements from the identical suppliers, understanding solely a small portion of the main points of how a competitor units up its vehicles would permit different groups to extrapolate on that info and recreate a profitable automotive setup.
“Because of this, automotive setup, analytics, and race technique have develop into more and more necessary as aggressive differentiators in NASCAR for the reason that introduction of the NextGen automotive in 2022. This info is very guarded.
“Consequently, such misuse, disclosure, or dissemination of JGR’s Confidential Info and Commerce Secrets and techniques would end in impaired skill to compete, misplaced income and enterprise alternatives, and reputational hurt, amongst different accidents.”
The entire amended submitting could be discovered beneath with further particulars beneath that.
In submitting the movement for injunctive reduction and a restraining order, Joe Gibbs Racing additionally acknowledged that neither Spire nor Gabehart are voluntarily consenting, and thus each orders must be issued by Decide Matthew E. Orso.
“Counsel for JGR has conferred with counsel for Gabehart regarding the reduction requested within the Movement, and counsel for Gabehart has indicated Gabehart doesn’t consent to the reduction requested within the Movement. Equally, JGR has conferred with Spire regarding the reduction requested within the Movement, and Spire doesn’t consent to the reduction requested within the Movement.”
The restraining order and injunctive reduction movement could be discovered beneath, with further info beneath that.
The amended grievance and restraining order movement additionally included written declarations from JGR competitors director Wally Brown, who resumed the position he held earlier than briefly turning it over to Gabehart final 12 months but additionally chief monetary officer Tim Carmichael.
Brown wrote testimony meant to convey the harm that could possibly be accomplished to JGR if Gabehart makes use of proprietary info in his new position at Spire Motorsports. Carmichael wrote testimony meant to convey all of the ways in which Gabehart violated the phrases of his employment settlement.
The third declaration is from Clark C. Walton, a ‘forensics professional for Reliance Forensics, and a licensed lawyer who was retained by JGR for the Gabehart case and oversaw the file evaluation that ultimately inspired this lawsuit.
Walton mentioned his agency noticed the next Google search historical past from Gabehart.
Moreover, Walton cited the next discoveries:
“Reliance additionally noticed synced exercise on the JGR Pc associated to a Google Drive account related to Gabehart’s private Gmail tackle. The Recognized Synced Google Drive seems to have been synced with the JGR Pc. The Recognized Synced Google Drive account contained a folder named ‘Spire’ which contained a subfolder named ‘Previous Setups.’ Reliance didn’t entry the contents of The Recognized Synced Google Drive account itself as a part of its preliminary assessment of the JGR Pc. Reliance noticed interactions with the Spire Folder on November 12, 13, 15, 23, 25, 26, 27 and December 2, 2025 as acknowledged beneath. The Final Seen Time proven on this report usually signifies that point {that a} folder on file was final opened.”
Walton detailed alleged entry of ‘https://apps.jgrcloud.com/,’ ‘https://analytics.joegibbsracing.com,’ ‘https://joegibbsracing-my.sharepoint.com,’ and ‘https://trdhydra.toyota.com/,’ in mid to late November.
The report detailed all of the instances that an unknown account and one account related to what seems to be Gabehart’s private electronic mail tackle accessed JGR’s database.
The total Walton declaration could be discovered beneath.
Joe Gibbs Racing additionally responded to Gabehart’s assertion that ’emphatically denied’ the allegations.
“The assertion was materially false and deceptive. First, the forensic professional engaged by JGR confirmed that Defendant had taken JGR’s Confidential Info and Commerce Secrets and techniques, together with monetary info Gabehart expressly denied taking up December 17, 2025.
“Second, the forensic professional knowledgeable Gabehart via his counsel that the assessment didn’t show Gabehart had not shared JGR’s Confidential Info and Commerce Secrets and techniques with third events or saved the supplies Gabehart did soak up totally different places. Certainly the forensic assessment workforce famous that the assessment ‘didn’t exclude the potential for [JGR] information being despatched by way of electronic mail from an internet portal, being despatched by way of textual content message then deleted the message, shared instantly by way of Google Pictures or some other fileshare website.”
Gabehart has mentioned he’ll file a response within the coming days.
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