Spire Motorsports Co-Owner Jeff Dickerson Delivers Comprehensive Rebuttal to Joe Gibbs Racing Lawsuit in Court Filing

In a significant legal filing unsealed late Wednesday, Spire Motorsports co-owner Jeff Dickerson has formally responded to the multimillion-dollar lawsuit filed by Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) against former competition director Chris Gabehart. Dickerson’s extensive declaration details a long-standing personal relationship with Gabehart and expresses profound disappointment with the legal action initiated by JGR, asserting that the core of the dispute stems from a failed reciprocal agreement and JGR’s internal issues.

Dickerson, who boasts a multifaceted career in motorsports including experience as a grassroots racer, sports agent, and spotter, co-founded Spire Sports+Entertainment in 2010. His professional network spans across the sports and entertainment industries, a theme that permeates his legal arguments. The dispute centers on Gabehart’s departure from JGR and subsequent hiring by Spire, with JGR alleging a "brazen scheme" to steal proprietary competition secrets and seeking $8 million in damages.

The narrative, as presented by Dickerson, traces back to April 2025 when JGR sought to hire Robert "Cheddar" Smith, a car chief under contract with Spire. At the time, Smith was slated to join JGR to work with driver Ty Gibbs, grandson of team owner Joe Gibbs. Dickerson states that he proposed a "player to be named later" type of trade with JGR, having learned that JGR had already been in discussions with Smith regarding future employment.

"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," Dickerson stated in the filing.

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He further elaborated that Chris Gabehart, acting under the direction of "Coach" Joe Gibbs and Heather Gibbs, proposed an alternative to the reciprocal waiver. "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."

According to Dickerson, JGR failed to either make the $100,000 payment or provide a waiver for a Spire employee. This led to JGR effectively replacing Tyler Allen with Gabehart as crew chief for the No. 54 team during the summer. Spire’s subsequent request to release Allen from his contract to join Spire, mirroring the arrangement for Smith, was reportedly denied by JGR. Spire’s counter-offer to have Ryan Towles, the car chief replaced by Smith, join them was also rejected.

Dickerson emphasized the strategic importance of the proposed trade, noting, "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."

The personal relationship between Dickerson and Gabehart is presented as a crucial element in the timeline. Dickerson claims to have a nearly two-decade-long friendship with Gabehart, dating back to his time as a spotter and agent for Kyle Busch. He played a key role in negotiating Gabehart’s first crew chief contract with the nascent Kyle Busch Motorsports in 2009-2010. 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," Dickerson recounted. "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."

During a dinner meeting in October 2025, ostensibly to discuss personal matters and industry trends, Dickerson alleges that Gabehart confided concerns about his role at JGR, specifically regarding the No. 54 car and his perceived deployment compared to his expectations for the competition director position. "I could tell that Mr. Gabehart did not take pleasure in the possibility of leaving his long-time employer," Dickerson wrote. "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."

The conversation yielded no resolution regarding the reciprocal trade agreement. However, on November 11, Gabehart informed Dickerson that Joe Gibbs Racing had agreed to a mutual separation on November 6, subject to a one-week non-compete clause. Dickerson expressed his interest in hiring Gabehart, stating that any future role would need to be a significant career advancement and not a lateral move.

"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," Dickerson detailed. His interest in Gabehart, he explained, stemmed from a need for an experienced executive to manage Spire’s diverse business operations, a role he had been personally handling, encompassing everything from finance and human resources to competition across multiple teams and ventures, as well as interfacing with TWG Motorsports, the majority stakeholder in Spire.

Dickerson recounted an instance where driver Daniel Suarez questioned who Gabehart was replacing at Spire, to which Dickerson replied, "me." He noted that Gabehart informed him JGR stopped paying him sometime in mid-November. Dickerson believed JGR would place Gabehart on a paid "gardening leave" pending the conclusion of their separation negotiations.

Feeling the urgency to secure Gabehart’s services, particularly if he was no longer on JGR’s payroll, Dickerson arranged a meeting on December 2. This meeting, held at the Barcelona Burger and Beer Garden in Mooresville, North Carolina, adjacent to the Toyota Gazoo Racing Garage, was reportedly captured by a private investigator hired by JGR. Dickerson highlighted the proximity to the Toyota GR Garage, a facility used by Toyota in its technical alliance with JGR, as a point of interest.

"The Toyota GR Garage is a high performance motorsports testing garage used by Toyota, which is in a technical alliance with JGR," Dickerson stated. "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."

Dickerson expressed surprise and disturbance at learning JGR had employed a private investigator to follow Gabehart. "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," he asserted. "In my twenty-five years of experience in this industry, I have never once heard of a team doing so." He further stated that JGR never contacted him regarding any non-compete clause concerning Gabehart until the lawsuit was filed, even during forensic examination processes.

Spire also sent a letter to JGR’s legal team on February 11, offering a forensic analysis of Spire’s files to demonstrate the absence of any retained proprietary data. This overture reportedly went unanswered, with JGR filing its lawsuit against Gabehart the following week.

Dickerson vehemently rejected the lawsuit’s allegations, stating, "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." He characterized the lawsuit as an attempt to stifle Spire’s growth and competitive aspirations.

Regarding accusations of poaching JGR sponsors, Dickerson provided exhibits suggesting that overtures from JGR personnel were characterized as networking. He countered by accusing JGR of being highly adept at acquiring sponsors from smaller teams, citing an instance where JGR allegedly pursued a sponsor already contracted with another team in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series and an attempt to lure one of Spire’s anchor sponsors.

"JGR frequently pursues sponsors who it knows are already under contract with other teams," Dickerson stated. "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."

Dickerson also dismissed the claim that Spire needed or wanted sponsorship information from JGR, emphasizing Spire’s existing relationships with Hendrick Motorsports, a Chevrolet team with extensive championship success, and General Motors for aerodynamic data and tools. He argued that data from JGR would be difficult to integrate due to differing technical alliances and the rapid evolution of competitive strategies in NASCAR.

"To be absolutely clear, Spire does not need any sponsorship information from JGR," Dickerson asserted. "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."

Both Gabehart and Spire, according to Dickerson, signed non-disclosure agreements that legally prevented the sharing of any protected trade secrets. Spire, he maintains, would never utilize a competitor’s trade secrets and has no interest in doing so, asserting that no one at Spire has seen any alleged documents taken from JGR. He stated that Spire hired Gabehart only after the forensic investigation of his devices concluded, with onboarding occurring in mid-February.

Dickerson concluded by expressing offense at the lawsuit’s assertions, stating, "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."

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