In a legal filing posted late on Wednesday night, Spire Motorsports co-owner Jeff Dickerson detailed his long personal relationship with Chris Gabehart and expressed deep disappointment in the lawsuit filed against them by Joe Gibbs Racing.
Prior to team ownership, Dickerson served as an ex-grassroots racer, sports agent and spotter, whom eventually co-founded the Spire Sports+Entertainment agency alongside TJ Puchyr in 2010. Dickerson has thorough relationships that run the gamut of sports and entertainment.
That is a constant theme over much of his legal rebuttals in this matter with Joe Gibbs Racing over Spire.
This particular story actually starts with Joe Gibbs Racing hiring longtime NASCAR Cup Series car chief Robert ‘Cheddar’ Smith in April of 2025. Smith was under contract with Spire but was released so he could join JGR to serve in that capacity with the No. 54 car and driver Ty Gibbs,– the grandson of team owner Coach Joe Gibbs.
Dickerson said he proposed a trade with JGR over what he considered a player to be named later type of agreement. He found out that JGR had already been in contact with Smith over future employment so this arrangement could have been mutually beneficial.
Dickerson writes:
“Given JGR’s interest in Mr. Smith, and given that he was under an active contract with a term that did not expire for many months and also subject to a non-compete that would not allow for the immediate relief JGR was seeking for Ty Gibbs, I told JGR that if it made an offer to Mr. Smith that was acceptable to him and he accepted that offer, Spire would agree to mutually terminate Robert Smith’s contract, which would allow him to begin working for JGR immediately—in exchange for JGR extending the same waiver for an employee that Spire would identify in the future.
“Mr. Gabehart, at the direction of Coach Gibbs and Heather Gibbs, insisted that JGR have the option to fulfill the agreement by making a $100,000 payment as an alternative to extending a waiver for an employee that Spire would identify in the future. I agreed to that proposal, with the understanding that JGR would make good on our deal by the end of 2025.”
Dickerson said Gibbs never did pay the fee or let a similar employee out of their contract to join Spire. Over the course of last summer, JGR effectively replaced Tyler Allen with Gabehart as crew chief of the No. 54 team.
Spire asked JGR if it would let Allen out of his contract so they could hire him in the same way it released Smith so he could join JGR. Dickerson said JGR refused and Spire countered with Ryan Towles, the car chief replaced upon the hiring of Smith, but that was also rejected.
More from Dickerson, italicized:
“Importantly, Robert Smith, as a car chief, was part of the competition leadership arm at Spire, and JGR understood that Spire’s next attempted hire from JGR under the Trade Understanding would come from the competition arm, if not leadership, from JGR. That did not stop JGR from entering into the Trade Understanding.”
By October 2025, Dickerson said he met with Gabehart to ‘catch up’ but also to see who from JGR might be available to complete the agreed-upon trade agreement.
But first, some backstory, as Dickerson says he and Gabehart have been friends for nearly two decades. While working as spotter and agent for Kyle Busch, Dickerson says he put together the first contract for Gabehart to work at the nascent Kyle Busch Motorsports team.
At the time, Gabehart was a championship-winning Super Late Model driver with an engineering degree from Purdue University.
“I worked hard to recruit Mr. Gabehart to Kyle Busch Motorsports and also assisted with negotiating his first crew chief contract. I knew that he had a bright future because of his technical expertise combined with business acumen. I stayed in contact with Mr. Gabehart from that time to the present day with periodic phone calls and informal meetings at various racetracks. Over the last 16 years, I have also regularly enjoyed meals with Mr. Gabehart to catch up about our careers and life more generally. I always had a particularly strong bond with Mr. Gabehart because both of us were working diligently to help start up Kyle Busch Motorsports in 2009 and 2010.”
So over the course of that dinner in October 25, Dickerson said they discussed their kids, pavement late models, the current state of the motorsports industry and their personal experiences.
The latter is where, according to Dickerson, that Gabehart confided concerns about the status quo at JGR, both with the No. 54 car and how he was being deployed compared to his expectations after agreeing to the promotion.
“I could tell that Mr. Gabehart did not take pleasure in the possibility of leaving his long-time employer. I knew that Mr. Gabehart had devoted most of his career across more than a decade to serving JGR. I could tell when he spoke that it pained him to consider the possibility of leaving. I knew then that the workplace environment at JGR must have been toxic and unsustainable.”
Dickerson said he left dinner that night with no resolution on who could be sent back to Spire as part of the agreement to release Smith from his contract earlier in the season.
Dickerson said that Gabehart informed him on November 11 that Joe Gibbs Racing had agreed to a mutual separation on November 6 subject to a one-week non-compete clause. Dickerson expressed interest in hiring him.
“Mr. Gabehart stated that any future role he took would not be a lateral move. Instead, he said that if he left JGR, he would be looking for a completely different role that would present a new challenge for him. He most certainly had no interest in doing what he was doing for JGR at the time.
“My interest in Mr. Gabehart arose from the fact that I needed an experienced lieutenant to help me manage Spire’s wide-ranging business affairs. Prior to hiring Mr. Gabehart, I (as co-owner of Spire) had been managing the day-to-day operations of our racing programs and varied ancillary businesses. This included everything from accounting to human resources, travel, and competition-related tasks across a number of different teams, racing series, and businesses. I also had the role of interfacing with TWG Motorsports, the organization that owns a majority stake in Spire.”
Dickerson recounted a story to which driver Daniel Suarez asked ‘who is Chris Gabehart replacing,’ and the co-owned said, ‘me.’
In the declaration, Dickerson said Gabehart told him ‘sometime in mid-November’ that JGR had stopped paying him. Dickerson thought JGR would keep Gabehart on some kind of ‘gardening leave’ and keep him on payroll subject to the conclusion of their separation agreement negotiations.
Dickerson said he felt compelled to ‘act fast’ to sign Gabehart to a deal, especially if he was no longer being paid by Joe Gibbs Racing, or risk losing him to another organization. This led to the meeting on December 2 that was captured by a private investigator under the employ of Joe Gibbs Racing.
The dinner took place at the Barcelona Burger and Beer Garden in Mooresville, North Carolina adjacent to the Toyota Gazoo Racing Garage.
“The Toyota GR Garage is a high performance motorsports testing garage used by Toyota, which is in a technical alliance with JGR. Workers from the Toyota GR Garage routinely eat lunch at Barcelona Burger and Beer Garden. I had absolutely no concerns about any of those workers seeing me eating lunch with Mr. Gabehart because I understood that there was no applicable non-compete in place at the time I met with Mr. Gabehart. And, even if a non-compete had been in place, there is nothing that prevents me from eating lunch with a friend.
Unbeknownst to me, JGR had hired a private investigator to follow Mr. Gabehart around. The private investigator apparently took photographs of me eating lunch with Mr. Gabehart. I was surprised and, quite frankly, disturbed to learn that a competitor in our industry had hired someone to follow its former employee around. I cannot stress this enough: It is extraordinary for an organization in our business to hire a private investigator to follow around any employee, let alone a former employee. In my twenty-five years of experience in this industry, I have never once heard of a team doing so.
“Despite JGR being well aware that Spire was recruiting Mr. Gabehart as early as December 2, 2025, no one at JGR ever contacted me to claim that Mr. Gabehart was subject to an applicable non-compete (until JGR filed this lawsuit). Even during the forensic examination process described below, no one at JGR ever contacted me to claim that Mr. Gabehart was subject to an applicable non-compete.”
Dickerson said that no one from Joe Gibbs Racing ever contacted him in December to inform Spire that Gabehart was under any kind of non-compete agreement nor was a conversation initiated during the forensic analysis period.
Gabehart has previously said that he paid out of pocket for JGR to examine his personal devices for any evidence that he continued to store trade secrets obtained from company servers.
Joe Gibbs Racing, for its part, did not pay out the remaining balance of what it appeared to owe Gabehart because it instead sued over a ‘brazen scheme’ to steal proprietary competition secrets with the potential of sharing it with Spire.
Dickerson says he doesn’t want nor need any data from JGR due to what his team pays for and receives from Hendrick Motorsports and Chevrolet.
“To be clear, Spire never asked for, did not want or need, and does not want or need any information from Mr. Gabehart that was the property of JGR. Spire has its own technical alliance with Hendrick Motorsports, who holds the Cup Series record for wins at 320 and 15 championships, and otherwise has no need for JGR’s information. Spire also works with General Motors for data purposes. Spire also has its own drivers, its own equipment, its own crews, its own engineers, its own crew chiefs, its own vehicle and engine manufacturers, its own sponsors, its own funding sources, and its own strategy.
“Spire is a Chevrolet team with a different body and different engine from what JGR races in. The outerbody and underbody work together, such that information from JGR would not be an easy carry over for performance. Spire receives support from General Motors which supplies all of Spire’s aerodynamics data, tools and simulation. Spire is not in control of these programs and can only make recommendations for improvements. As a result, any data from JGR would be almost impossible to use. Additionally, in the Cup Series in particular, optimal engineering changes on a day-to-day and week-by-week basis, such that information that is not current would not be relevant or useful to Spire. Spire obtains its engines from Hendrick Motorsports and is not in control of any development, which is another reason why information and data from JGR would not be useful or relevant. General Motors and Hendrick Motorsports are the most recent champions in the Cup Series, so Spire believes that it already has access to the best information available. Spire, therefore, believes that it already has access to any information that will allow it to be a successful team, and is not looking for information from JGR. Ultimately, I believe that any JGR information available could actually harm Spire—we have absolutely no way to validate outside information because in this sport the manufacturers control aerodynamics and tire testing data.”
As has been previously stated, Dickerson said Gabehart signed a non-disclosure agreement with Spire that prevented him legally from sharing any protected trade secrets from JGR with anyone at Spire. Mutually, Spire signed a similar agreement with Gabehart that it would not solicit him for proprietary or protected information.
“Spire would never use a competitor’s trade secrets for its benefit, and would aggressively protect its own trade secrets in the event they were distributed to or shared with another team. That is not a line that I or any of my fellow owners in the Cup Series garage are willing to cross. As a result, I have never even conceptualized of the possibility of using another team’s trade secrets for Spire’s benefit. To date and as far as I know, no one at Spire has ever seen the documents that Mr. Gabehart allegedly took from JGR.”
Dickerson said he waited for the forensic investigation of Gabehart’s devices to play itself out before making the hire, with on-boarding taking place over the course of February 16-17.
Spire also sent a letter to Joe Gibbs Racing’s legal team on February 11, offering a forensic analysis of pertinent Spire files to show it had not retained proprietary data. That overture never, seemingly, received a response and JGR instead sued Gabehart the next week.
Overall, Dickerson takes extreme exception to being sued, and is offended at the allegations and assertions.
“JGR’s repeated attacks on Spire’s integrity are not well taken. Spire and JGR are colleagues in this industry. Both teams are entitled to respect. Both teams are on an equal footing and have the same charters that allow them to compete.
“This lawsuit is an effort to stifle Spire as it attempts to build a team that, one day, could rack up the number of wins that JGR touts. Rather than allowing that competition to play out on the track, and rather than considering what brought JGR here in the first place, JGR has chosen to attack, disparage, and demean Spire.
“JGR’s loss of talent and potential loss of sponsorships is an internal problem, not a Spire problem. That is a difficult proposition for JGR to accept. Ultimately, JGR lost a star employee because it could not deliver him the workplace experience and role that he desired. And, in the end, as I understand JGR’s publicly-filed contract with Mr. Gabehart and the facts, he was free to take employment anywhere at the time Spire hired him.”
Dickerson took similar exception to the claims that Spire was attempting to poach Joe Gibbs Racing sponsors. Spire filed several exhibits on Wednesday that characterized overtures from the likes of COO Stephen D’Hondt and Business Development Manager Sieradzan as networking check-ins.
He then accused Joe Gibbs Racing as being one of the most proficient entities at poaching sponsors from smaller teams.
“JGR frequently pursues sponsors who it knows are already under contract with other teams. In fact, just this past weekend, JGR was openly pursuing a sponsor who currently sponsors a different team in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series. If JGR obtains that sponsor and gets the sponsor to move to JGR, it will present an existential threat for that team.
“As an example, I am aware that JGR called one of Spire’s anchor sponsors within the last year and offered to match what the sponsor was paying to Spire or to allow them to pay less if they chose to sponsor JGR. Ultimately, that sponsor chose to remain with Spire.
“This conduct is part of the racing business. It may be viewed as overly competitive, but there is nothing untoward about it. Sponsors are free to choose which teams they sponsor, and teams are free to pursue their preferred sponsors.”
One of the many files that Gabehart had synced to his personal Google Drive involved JGR’s sponsorship pricing structure and strategy, something Dickerson said he also doesn’t need due to his years owning a team and double that owning an agency that has funneled sponsors to teams that include Gibbs.
“To be absolutely clear, Spire does not need any sponsorship information from JGR. Spire has its own sponsors and its own strategic sponsorship initiatives. Also, we have eyes—we can see on the side of cars and at tracks and in advertising which sponsors are sponsoring JGR. We don’t need Chris Gabehart to tell us anything about who JGR’s sponsors are, just like JGR does not need Robert Smith to tell JGR who Spire’s sponsors are.”
You can read the full declaration from Jeff Dickerson below.
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