As decided on Monday by Judge Susan C. Rodriguez of the Western District of North Carolina, Chris Gabehart will be permitted to continue working for Spire Motorsports but also under a limited restraining order regarding anything that overlapped with his previous duties at Joe Gibbs Racing.
Gabehart and Spire have been sued by JGR for over $8 million in damages alleging a ‘brazen scheme’ to steal and potentially disseminate proprietary business information. The longtime engineer and crew chief turned competition director and JGR parted ways at the end of last season but both sides disagree over that process and the particulars of a non-compete and non-disclosure agreement.
For his part, Gabehart has maintained all along that he has not shared any JGR trade secrets with Spire and signed an NDA with the latter that prevents him from doing so. Joe Gibbs Racing is seeking expedited fact discovery this month to probe personal devices in which Gabehart stored or accessed files that could have been shared with Spire leadership.
On Monday, Judge Rodriguez said the court will take up the matter of expedited discovery on March 16 but issued the limited restraining order, verbally. On Thursday, she spelled out the specifics in a written order in advance of a weekend at Phoenix in which NASCAR and IndyCar are sharing the same garage area.
Specifics from the order are in italics below:
- Defendant Gabehart shall immediately cease and desist from retaining, transferring, using or copying any of JGR’s Confidential Information and Trade Secrets;
- Defendant Gabehart shall cease and desist from using or disclosing JGR’s Confidential Information and Trade Secrets;
- Defendant Gabehart shall return any of JGR’s Confidential Information and Trade Secrets in his possession to JGR;
- Defendant Gabehart shall be restrained from violating Section 6 of his Employment Agreement, which prohibits providing services of the general type of services that Defendant Gabehart provided to JGR in the year prior to his termination. For the sake of clarity, the Court is not requiring Gabehart to resign from his position at Spire or prohibiting him from working for Spire. Other services not performed at JGR in the year prior to his termination are permissible.
This restraining order expires on March 16, 2026, at 11:59 p.m. right in the middle of the hearing to discuss an injunction motion and the motion for expediated fact discovery. Joe Gibbs Racing is also required to pay a $100,000 bond to cover any lost wages from Gabehart in the case he receives a favorable ruling.
Joe Gibbs Racing has a Friday deadline for an addition filing in support of its injunction motion and Gabehart’s responses to both are due on Wednesday. JGR’s reply to the response is due next Friday.
During a November 6 meeting between Coach Joe Gibbs and Gabehart, both parties decided it was best it they parted ways. Gabehart claimed his job as competition director was being undermined by different standards for the No. 54 car than the other three teams at the organization.
The No. 54 car is driven by Ty Gibbs, grandson of Coach Gibbs. Gabehart said the No. 54 program was directly overseen by Coach and that he was not allowed to execute his duties due to the family. The parties worked on a separation agreement but that fell apart after JGR became concerned that Gabehart had shared trade secrets with Spire after conducting a forensic review of personal devices.
The following summary is from Judge Rodriguez’s order:
“The forensic review revealed that Gabehart had connected his Google Drive to his JGR Computer, and that Gabehart had been conducting online research about Spire during October and November of 2025
…
“In addition, the forensic review revealed that on November 7, 2025, (the day after the meeting wherein Gibbs and Gabehart decided to part ways), Gabehart used his personal cell phone to take at least 20 pictures of items contained on his JGR laptop, which included: comprehensive post-race audit and analyses of team and driver performance for the entire 2025 NASCAR season; complete team payroll details including job titles, contract length, annual compensation, incentive compensation, and compensation plans for prior years; an employee compensation calculator used to project and plan pay for key JGR positions; driver pay for the 2025 and 2026 NASCAR seasons; revenues from sponsors, partners, and other business arrangements for the 2024, 2025, and 2026 NASCAR seasons; JGR’s pit crew analytics for the 2024 NASCAR season; and detailed analytics of racecar tires used to assess impact on race results.
“Such information constituted Confidential Information as defined by the Employment Agreement, and taking pictures of this information was done without JGR’s consent.”
Gabehart has since admitted to taking 20 photographs of sensitive JGR information, with attorney telling the Judge that he feels ‘embarrassed’ and ‘stupid,’ but also returned everything he had taken. A total of 235 files were deleted from Gabehart’s devices as part of the JGR forensic analysis.
For now, Gabehart simply cannot perform any duties associated with Cup Series team competition performance or utilize any business data he may have acquired in violation of his contract and NDA. He also cannot do work for a manufacturer, which in this case would be Chevrolet.
“Under the Agreement, Plaintiff submits because Defendant Gabehart’s termination was with cause, the non-compete covenant term is 18 months and is limited to the “services of the general type of services that [Gabehart] provided to [JGR] in the year prior to such termination to any other NASCAR Xfinity Series or NASCAR Cup Series racing team (or their respective successor series) or any vehicle manufacturing company or other person or entity that provides goods or services to such a team.” (Doc. No. 8-2). This covenant does not completely bar an employee from working in the industry. Rather, it restricts the employee from performing services provided to the employer in the year prior to such termination. Similar covenants not to compete with 18-month restrictions in both time, term, and territory have been found reasonable under North Carolina law.”
Of note, the 18 month number is how much time Gabehart had on his originally signed contract with Gibbs to serve as competition director. Spire has said it has not received JGR trade secrets nor did it want it due to their relationship with Hendrick Motorsports and Chevrolet.
The full order can be read in its entirety below.
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