Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) has filed a request in the western district of North Carolina for Chris Gabehart and Spire Motorsports to be held in civil contempt. This action stems from an alleged violation of the temporary restraining order and the preliminary injunction imposed on them last March.
JGR’s petition demands that the defendants appear before the court to justify why they should not be sanctioned. This situation is part of the ongoing litigation between the three parties, which arose after Gabehart’s departure from JGR at the end of last season, accused of breaching his contract and taking sensitive information to benefit Spire.
Since the start of the legal actions, the court has determined that Gabehart cannot provide services to Spire that are similar to the functions he performed as competition director at JGR during the 2025 season. This includes the preparation and execution of race strategies, oversight of analytics, as well as participation in weekly competition meetings.
JGR argues that Gabehart has acted on numerous occasions as if he still held the position of competition director. According to the team, Spire has helped to circumvent this prohibition by giving him the title of ‘Chief Motorsports Officer’ and an ambiguous role that JGR considers deceptive.
In its motion, JGR asserts that Spire did not impose significant restrictions on Gabehart until months after the litigation began. The petition asks the court to order Gabehart and Spire to appear to be held accountable for failing to comply with the imposed injunction.
To bolster its accusations, JGR has submitted several documents that include emails, deposits, and text messages showing that Gabehart has performed similar functions to those he carried out at JGR during the current season.
Examples provided
One of the cited examples includes a conversation Gabehart had on March 21, 2026, with Matt McCall, competition director of Spire, about technical details of cars No. 77 and No. 71 while the restraining order was in effect.
Additionally, at the end of March, driver Carson Hocevar communicated technical difficulties with his vehicle to Gabehart via text messages. Gabehart responded with a directive to ‘stop’, acknowledging that the conversation violated the order.
Spire’s technical director, Dax Gerringer, stated that Gabehart has attended several competition meetings since the order and provided technical assistance, including a specific meeting on April 20, 2026, after the Cup Series race in Kansas.
The case of the deleted messages
A crucial aspect of this litigation is the deletion of text messages. Gabehart deleted all of his message history with Jeff Dickerson on November 15, just two days after receiving an offer to work at Spire. JGR is trying to recover those messages to determine if sensitive information was discussed.
Despite the measures taken, the messages have proven impossible to recover, and JGR argues that the deletion of the messages is behavior that deserves sanctions.
In conclusion, JGR requests the court to recognize Gabehart’s intent to prevent JGR from accessing the deleted evidence and to allow for the inference that these communications contained harmful information for Gabehart and Spire.
Written by FormulaRapidaAI
