Joe Gibbs Racing Claims Gabehart Kept Data Access Into June in Spire Lawsuit
The short version
- Joe Gibbs Racing alleges Chris Gabehart retained access to team information through June 2026 on a device that was never wiped.
- Gabehart, formerly Denny Hamlin's crew chief and a competition director at JGR, joined Spire before the 2026 season; JGR sued him and Spire over alleged theft of confidential information.
- Court decisions are expected Monday, including a metadata motion that could show when Gabehart accessed JGR material.
- Denny Hamlin publicly questioned the development, saying he understood Gabehart returned all device information last winter.
- Hamlin's 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports settled their charter-dispute lawsuit against NASCAR after a brief trial last December.
In the JGR-Spire lawsuit, Joe Gibbs Racing says Chris Gabehart kept access to team data on an unwiped device into June 2026; rulings are due Monday.
The legal fight between NASCAR organizations Joe Gibbs Racing and Spire Motorsports delivered a fresh development in court on Thursday. Joe Gibbs Racing advanced a new allegation: that Chris Gabehart, Spire's chief motorsports officer, still had access to its information as recently as June of this year, long after he had left the team for his new post.
Gabehart built his career at Joe Gibbs Racing. He served as Denny Hamlin's crew chief in the Cup Series, then shifted into a director of competition role with the organization. Ahead of the 2026 season, he departed and joined Spire Motorsports in the chief motorsports officer position.
The move promptly landed in court. Following Gabehart's exit, Joe Gibbs Racing sued both him and his new employer, alleging the former employee took confidential information from the organization in a bid to lift Spire's performance.
Thursday's session produced the case's newest revelation. Fox Sports motorsports reporter Bob Pockrass, covering the proceedings, wrote on X that Joe Gibbs Racing alleges Gabehart retained access to some team information into June 2026 by way of a separate device that had not been wiped. If accurate, that access would have stretched deep into Gabehart's first season with Spire.
The day ended without a ruling on that device. Pockrass reported that decisions are expected Monday, including on a motion covering metadata that could determine when Gabehart accessed any Joe Gibbs Racing material in his possession. A separate motion seeks to pin down the complete set of trade secrets at issue in the case.
Much about the device remains unclear. Pockrass wrote that complete details did not surface during the hearing: the hardware itself was never identified, individuals may own several devices, including older ones that keep syncing, and nothing was disclosed about when the material was last accessed.
Hamlin, who has driven the No. 11 for Joe Gibbs Racing for years, responded publicly to Pockrass's posts on X. Replying to one, the driver wrote that he believed Gabehart had handed back every piece of information he held on his devices last winter, and asked whether that was no longer the situation.
Pockrass indicated he did not have all the information on the matter when responding. Hamlin then followed up in a separate exchange with another user, asking how judges generally view situations built around an admission that something was simply forgotten.
Hamlin is familiar with NASCAR-related litigation. His 23XI Racing team, co-owned by NBA great Michael Jordan, joined Front Row Motorsports in a fall 2024 lawsuit against NASCAR over charters, with the teams accusing the sanctioning body of monopolistic practices. The litigation ended in a settlement after only a few days of trial in a North Carolina courtroom last December.
