Joe Gibbs Racing Accuses Ex-Competition Director of Trade Secret Theft, Demands $8 Million

Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) has filed a lawsuit seeking $8 million in damages from its former competition director, Chris Gabehart, alleging a deliberate scheme to steal proprietary company information and use it to benefit a direct competitor, Spire Motorsports. The legal action, lodged in the Western District of North Carolina, accuses Gabehart of misappropriating trade secrets and violating his contractual obligations following his departure from the NASCAR powerhouse.

The lawsuit, spanning 30 pages, details a timeline that suggests Gabehart orchestrated a plan to leverage JGR’s confidential data for his new role as Chief Motorsports Officer at Spire Motorsports. According to the filing, Gabehart’s alleged actions began after his demands for increased authority within JGR were reportedly rebuffed by team owner Joe Gibbs.

The core of JGR’s claim centers on Gabehart’s alleged downloading and unauthorized retention of sensitive competitive information. The lawsuit asserts that Gabehart synchronized his personal Google Drive with his JGR team laptop, creating a folder specifically labeled "Spire." Within this folder, JGR claims, Gabehart stored photographic evidence of proprietary team data, including employee compensation figures, technical car set-up details, and performance analyses for drivers, crew chiefs, and pit crews.

JGR contends that Gabehart accessed these files, even during negotiations for a separation agreement and on the same day he met with Spire co-owner Jeff Dickerson. This alleged behavior, the team argues, escalated on December 15, prompting JGR to cease negotiations for a separation package and issue a formal cease and desist letter. Subsequently, JGR initiated a forensic review of Gabehart’s electronic devices, which reportedly formed the basis of the current lawsuit.

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Chris Gabehart, who previously served JGR for over a decade as an engineer and then a championship-winning crew chief before stepping into the competition director role, earned a base salary of $1 million last season, along with performance bonuses, as stipulated in his contract. This contract, included as an exhibit to the lawsuit, is cited by JGR as evidence of Gabehart’s alleged violation of its terms, particularly Section 5, which prohibits the disclosure or use of confidential information for purposes outside of his contractual duties.

The lawsuit outlines Gabehart’s expressed dissatisfaction with his role throughout the 2025 season. JGR alleges that Gabehart sought "complete responsibility and control over all departments supporting JGR’s competition efforts" rather than collaborating with other departments as a peer. This dissatisfaction reportedly culminated in a meeting with Joe Gibbs on November 6, 2025, where Gabehart allegedly requested "additional job authority that would give Defendant carte blanche authority over all racing decisions."

According to the legal filing, Joe Gibbs declined to grant these expanded responsibilities. The team owner then presented Gabehart with a choice: remain as competition director or depart. JGR states that Gabehart indicated he "preferred" to leave the organization. Following this decision, JGR began preparing terms for his employment elsewhere.

The initial separation proposal, presented on November 10, reportedly permitted Gabehart to work for another NASCAR team, contingent upon his agreement not to solicit key JGR employees and contractors and to cooperate in returning company property. However, JGR claims that during the negotiation of this agreement, Gabehart’s counsel made "repeated edits to the draft agreement, which appeared calculated to allow him to immediately solicit JGR employees to leave JGR."

It was during this period that JGR became aware of Gabehart’s personal meetings with Spire co-owner Jeff Dickerson, which raised suspicions within the team. While Gabehart agreed on December 17 to return any team information, he reportedly objected to a forensic examination of his devices.

JGR’s lawsuit alleges that Gabehart provided false assurances during this time. He reportedly represented that the "Spire" folder on his Google Drive was used solely for "his own notes and personal records," and that he had "not retained documents concerning JGR’s sensitive financial data." JGR counters these claims by stating that photographic evidence taken by Gabehart on November 7, 2025, contained a "significant amount of sensitive financial information."

Negotiations between Gabehart and JGR continued, with Gabehart reportedly stating that Spire’s offer "was not to provide similar services to those he provided to JGR." Eventually, the parties agreed to a forensic protocol involving a third-party expert tasked with identifying JGR information on Gabehart’s devices and securely deleting confirmed proprietary data.

Gabehart submitted his devices for examination on January 12, with the examiner providing the extracted files to JGR’s counsel on January 27. The JGR information was subsequently deleted from Gabehart’s devices on February 4.

On February 11, JGR reportedly learned for the first time that Gabehart’s role at Spire would encompass responsibility for "all of its racing strategy and operations." This revelation contradicted Gabehart’s earlier representation on December 17, 2025, that his Spire position would not involve providing "services similar to the services he provided JGR." JGR concluded from this that Gabehart’s initial resistance to the forensic examination was an attempt to conceal his disclosure of JGR’s confidential information and trade secrets to third parties, including Spire.

The lawsuit reconstructs a critical timeline beginning with Gabehart’s November 6 meeting with Joe Gibbs, where he expressed his preference to leave JGR. The following day, November 7, at 2:45 p.m., JGR alleges Gabehart accessed his company laptop while connected to the team’s network. During this session, he allegedly accessed "JGR’s most sensitive Confidential Information and Trade Secrets and, using his personal cell phone, took at least twenty photos of his laptop screen (the ‘November 7 Photos’)." These photos were reportedly saved to his personal phone and his personal Google Photos account.

The specific content of these photographs, as detailed in the lawsuit, includes comprehensive salary breakdowns for JGR personnel, detailed financial performance reports, and strategic plans. The filing further states that other proprietary team information was synchronized to Gabehart’s personal accounts, and he reportedly accessed these documents on the same day he met with Jeff Dickerson. The lawsuit specifies that Gabehart accessed and interacted with the "Spire" folder on his Google Drive on multiple occasions between November 12 and December 2, 2025, including the day he met with Dickerson.

The case has been assigned to Judge Matthew E. Orso. The next procedural step in the legal process will require Gabehart to file a formal response to the lawsuit with the court. The full complaint filed by Joe Gibbs Racing is available for review.

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