“When JGR first brought this case, it told the Court a dramatic story. Mr. Gabehart, JGR said, had stolen the ‘crown jewels’ of its racing operation and was deploying them at Spire Motorsports. JGR obtained a Temporary Restraining Order and then a Preliminary Injunction on the basis of that sensational claim. The Court, while granting partial relief, was careful to craft an Order that enforced the Employment Agreement as written—expressly permitting Mr. Gabehart to continue working at Spire and declining JGR’s request to impose a detailed catalogue of prohibited activities.
“Now, seven months later and after discovery has utterly failed to substantiate the reckless claims it made at the start, JGR nonetheless returns to this Court seeking the extraordinary remedy of civil contempt—a remedy that requires proof by clear and convincing evidence. It cannot come close to meeting that exacting burden.”
With that Chris Gabehart has responded to a court motion from Joe Gibbs Racing to hold himself and Spire Motorsports in contempt of court for a failure to adhere to Judge Susan C. Rodriguez’s temporary restraining order motion.
These are claims JGR made last week and of which the specific details can be found in the link below.
A court hearing is scheduled for Thursday morning for Gabehart and Spire Motorsports to explain to the court why they should not be held in contempt of a court order. Both parties indicated their defense strategy in late Tuesday night filings.
Gabehart issued several examples of deposition interviews that claim he is not participating in Cup Series competition meetings or Cup Series technical decisions similar to his previous role at Joe Gibbs Racing.
From the Gabehart filing on Tuesday night.
“Every one of these witnesses, under oath, confirmed that Mr. Gabehart is not providing services of the type he provided to JGR. He has not: served as a crew chief; acted as a competition director; shared JGR’s aerodynamic information; shared setup documents; communicated with GM Motorsports or Hendrick Motorsports about Cup Series; used any database for Cup purposes; been involved in any simulation, pre-event strategy, build sheets, QC materials, scans, fuel analysis, debrief forms, or project lists for Cup Series.”
In its own response, Spire Motorsports says Joe Gibbs Racing still has not proven any of its allegations that Gabehart has used proprietary information from his employer this season and that it is reaching to find reasons that the Temporary Restraining Order has been violated.
The bolded text was emphasized by Spire itself in its Tuesday night filing.
“JGR now asks the Court to inspect one-off comments allegedly made by Gabehart at two meetings (Gabehart attended just a handful of hundreds of Cup Series meetings at Spire). JGR wants to convert that chatter into a civil contempt order.
“JGR originally sought extraordinary relief on the theory that Gabehart had taken and distributed JGR’s race-car setups to Spire. It called those setups its ‘crown jewels.’ But extensive discovery—including more than 80 third-party subpoenas, hundreds of search terms, and searches across dozens of custodians—has not supported that theory. Spire never hired Gabehart as Competition Director or Crew Chief and never acquired JGR’s trade secrets.”
Most importantly, there is no evidence Gabehart transmitted the files JGR claims he took to Spire. If such evidence existed, the record would contain emails, texts, file-sharing, and other records showing Gabehart importing JGR’s race team to Spire. It would also show Gabehart running meetings, directing personnel, sitting on pit boxes, calling races, and communicating with drivers and alliance partners. There is no such evidence, because that did not happen. JGR’s reliance on a few stray words speaks volumes about the merits.”
Spire says the court’s order only prevents Gabehart from acting in any capacity that is similar to his previous roles at Joe Gibbs Racing, where he served as competition director and crew chief.
His title is Chief Motorsports Officer, which is an executive level title that reports directly to co-owner Jeff Dickerson. From the Spire filing:
“Spire hired Gabehart as Chief Motorsports Officer, an executive role unlike his JGR positions and one covering a broader portfolio: truck series, sprint cars, late models, dirt late models, IndyCars, and developmental drivers. Gabehart is also involved in Spire’s manufacturing, acquisition, and expansion work. Id. By contrast, JGR focuses on NASCAR Cup and Xfinity racing. At JGR, Gabehart called Cup races, sat on the pit box, led competition meetings, made real-time strategy calls, and had final responsibility for Cup performance. At Spire, he does none of those things. Matthew McCall and Spire’s three experienced crew chiefs run the Cup program.”
Those are things Spire says the court has authorized Gabehart to do until litigation has been settled. Again, the below in italics is from the Spire filing.
“The Court again clarified that it was ‘not requiring Gabehart to resign from his position at Spire or prohibiting him from working for Spire’ and ‘[o]ther services not performed at JGR in the year prior to his termination are permissible.’ Further, the preliminary injunction ‘does not prohibit Gabehart from attending the NASCAR Cup Series and the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series or prevent him from performing other services at those races not implicated by Section 6 of his Employment Agreement.’ The Court again found no basis for injunctive relief against Spire.”
Dickerson himself even said in deposition that he has gone above and beyond what the court ordered just to make sure they did not remotely come close to a violation of the court order.
For example, Dickerson believes Gabehart can sit in on competition meetings, even if he doesn’t participate but doesn’t want him even there at all.
Why?
“I do not put Chris in those — I do not put Chris in that meeting because we are not going to fly too close to the sun here, regardless of what he is or isn’t, right? What I do know is that he’s not the comp director of our place. Matt McCall is in every meeting, right. I’m in some meetings. Bill Anthony is in probably most of the meetings.”
And beyond that, Dickerson said Gabehart’s job also includes every other series TWG Motorsports and Spire is involved in so his schedule is so busy that it would keep him out of some Cup Series meetings even if there wasn’t active litigation.
Why does Dickerson keep him out of these meetings?
“Because I’m not going to put him in any situation or — even past that, I’m not going to put myself in a situation where I’m going to lose this case,” Dickerson said in the deposition.
Ultimately, Spire says Joe Gibbs Racing’s motive for everything they have done so far is to ‘crush Gabehart’ and ‘put him out of a job.”
Below in italics is from the Spire response:
“Despite extensive (unrebutted) testimony from every Spire witness demonstrating that Gabehart is not providing the same services to Spire that he provided to JGR, JGR maintains that Gabehart is somehow in violation of the Court’s Orders. That position flows from a flawed interpretation of the Court’s Orders and the palpable hatred JGR’s leadership has for Gabehart.”
Spire published a discovered text message from Heather Gibbs to her leadership team asking what Gabehart drives because she might take her dogs out to it one night.
In his own deposition, Joe Gibbs Racing president Dave Alpern said he believed that anything Gabehart would be doing for Spire would be a violation of the non-compete agreement he had with Gabehart.
“JGR’s contempt motion echoes that untenable position. It argues that Gabehart should not be able to work for Spire, speak with its employees, attend its meetings, or discuss racing. JGR criticizes his executive title as a mask for Cup Series competition work, treats his mere presence at a Cup Series meeting—or even in the Spire shop—as a violation, and faults Spire for not instructing employees to avoid Cup competition discussions with him.”
Spire also produced this email from president Bill Anthony to the company’s entire employee base that instructed everyone on how to deal with Gabehart’s presence until litigation has concluded.
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
