Spire Motorsports made it official on Saturday morning with a confirmation that it has indeed hired former Joe Gibbs Racing competition director Chris Gabehart to serve as Chief Motorsports Officer, a role that will oversee multiple disciplines.
The hire, in part, has served as the basis for a lawsuit by JGR against Gabehart, whom the team alleges accessed proprietary information while negotiating with Spire while syncing that data to his personal devices. The lawsuit claims Gabehart accessed this data, including a folder named ‘Spire,’ even on a day in which he met with Spire Motorsports co-owner Jeff Dickerson.
The lawsuit specifically cites violations of the federal Defend Trade Secrets Act, North Carolina trade secret law, unfair trade practices statutes, and breach of contract through confidentiality, non-compete, and non-solicitation provisions in his employment agreement.
JGR is seeking over $8 million dollars in damages.
Meanwhile, Gabehart issued a statement on Friday ‘forcefully and emphatically’ denying the allegations and said he would file a legal response before his deadline to do so. Three lawyers also filed notices of appearance with the court to represent Gabehart on Friday night — Cary B. Davis, Anna Claire Tucker and Spencer T. Wiles from Robinson, Bradshaw & Hinson, P.A.
Davis and Wiles have previous experience in NASCAR intellectual property legal matters. Tucker is an employment supervision specialist.
This all sets up a dynamic where the resolution could have wide-ranging implications on what senior level executives are able to take with them upon leaving a race team in a spec car era where such data is the bedrock of competition.
Joe Gibbs Racing contender Christopher Bell said during his media availability on Saturday at Atlanta Motor Speedway that he had a good relationship with Gabehart but would not offer much beyond that. For example, is he concerned about data from his No. 20 team ending up at Spire now?
“That is way, way above my head,” Bell said.
Wally Brown has re-taken over the role of competition director that he had at Joe Gibbs Racing before Gabehart was promoted to that position after a successful stint as crew chief for Denny Hamlin.
“Wally was in this role before,” Bell said. “It’s kind of more of the same for us.”
New Spire Motorsports driver Daniel Suarez had several career overlaps with Gabehart at Joe Gibbs Racing and even successfully raced driver Erik Jones and Gabehart for the 2016 Xfinity Series championship.
“Yeah, you know, actually, Chris and I, we fought for the championship back in 2016,” Suarez said. “He was the crew chief for Erik Jones, and I was with (crew chief) Scott Graves. He’s extremely smart and extremely competitive. At the time, he was a crew chief. I have nothing but respect for him.
“Obviously, you know, I never really got to work with him… only one race, actually, in 2017. I have nothing but respect for him. He was extremely fast in 2016. He was the biggest threat for us to win the championship with Erik Jones. So, I have nothing but respect for everything that he has done in his career.”
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
– The Motorsport.com Team
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: motorsport.com
