Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) has filed a lawsuit in the western district of North Carolina seeking that Chris Gabehart and Spire Motorsports be found in civil contempt. According to JGR, both parties violated the temporary restraining order and the preliminary injunction issued in March.
In this petition, JGR demands that the defendants appear before the court to explain why they should not be sanctioned. The legal conflict arises from Gabehart’s departure from JGR at the end of last season, where he is accused of breaching his contract and taking confidential information to benefit Spire.
Since the beginning of the lawsuit, the court has issued an order preventing Gabehart from providing services to Spire that are similar to those he performed as competition director at JGR during the 2025 season. This includes developing race strategies, overseeing analytics, and attending weekly meetings.
JGR argues that Gabehart has acted in this role on numerous occasions during the current season, and that Spire has facilitated this by allowing him to serve as ‘Chief Motorsports Officer.’ JGR claims this title is misleading.
In its motion, JGR states that Spire did not impose significant restrictions on Gabehart within the company until months after litigation began. JGR is requesting the court to order Gabehart and Spire to show up and explain why they should not be considered in contempt and to award JGR the costs associated with the proceedings.
To substantiate its position, JGR has submitted documents that include emails, statements, and text messages showing that Gabehart acted as competition director despite the court order.
Identified cases
A relevant example occurred on March 21, 2026, when Gabehart discussed technical details of cars number 77 and 71 from Spire with Matt McCall, competition director of the Cup Series. A week later, Carson Hocevar, Spire’s lead driver, communicated technical difficulties with his car to Gabehart, who responded with a ‘stop.’
Spire’s technical director, Dax Gerringer, confirmed in a statement that Gabehart has attended several competition meetings since the order was issued and has provided technical assistance. A key moment was on April 20, 2026, when Gabehart made technical recommendations in a competition meeting.
Message deletion
In another aspect, it is noted that on November 15, Gabehart deleted his message history with Dickerson, just two days after receiving a job offer from Spire. As part of the discovery process of the lawsuit, JGR is trying to recover these messages to determine if they discussed confidential information.
JGR argues that the deletion of messages by Gabehart is considered an act deserving sanctions. JGR’s forensic expert has been unable to recover the deleted contents, and Gabehart claims not to remember the messages, even though this could harm him in court.
In his statement, Gabehart acknowledges that he acted on instinct in a high-pressure situation and impulsively deleted the messages, while JGR insists that his actions demonstrate unclear intentions.
Finally, JGR requests that the court finds Gabehart acted with the intent to harm them by deleting the messages and that jurors may infer that this information was detrimental to Gabehart.
Written by FormulaRapidaAI
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