One day after being sued by Joe Gibbs Racing over an alleged 'brazen scheme' to steal data from the organization while negotiating his employment separation and a job opportunity with Spire Motorsports, Chris Gaebhart responded with a statement that suggests he intends to challenge his longtime employer in court.
“Yesterday afternoon, Joe Gibbs Racing filed a lawsuit claiming - falsely - that I shared JGR confidential information with Spire Motorsports and/or other unnamed third parties. I feel compelled to speak out today and forcefully and emphatically deny these frivolous and retaliatory claims.”
The claim from Joe Gibbs Racing is that Gabehart, while serving in his capacity as competition director for the organization in 2025, created a folder called ‘Spire’ and synced proprietary information with his personal Google Drive.
Joe Gibbs Racing also accused Gabehart of taking photos of proprietary information with his cell phone and also backing it up to his personal accounts. The lawsuit says that Gabehart continued to access these files even on a day where he had a meeting with Spire Motorsports co-owner Jeff Dickerson.
The lawsuit says JGR was made aware of a discussion for Gabehart to join Spire as Chief Motorsports Officer. JGR claims that it learned much of this information after a third-party forensic examination.
Specifically, JGR is asserting claims under the federal Defend Trade Secrets Act, North Carolina trade secret law, unfair trade practices statutes, and breach of contract, citing confidentiality, non-compete, and non-solicitation provisions in his employment agreement. The team is seeking over $8 million dollars in damages.
In his statement, Gabehart said that Joe Gibbs Racing was offered an opportunity to conduct a forensic examination on Spire Motorsports but declined. Gabehart said he and his legal representation intend to file a detailed response to the lawsuit in the days to come.
“I look forward to the opportunity to demonstrate to the Court that I have not shared JGR's confidential information with anyone. In fact, I have already demonstrated that to JGR. A third-party forensic expert retained by JGR recently examined my laptop, cell phone and personal Google Drive and found no evidence to support the baseless allegations in JGR's lawsuit. We even offered JGR the opportunity to do a similar review of Spire's systems. JGR refused that offer and filed this spiteful lawsuit instead.
“Stay tuned. We will have much more to say in the legal response we will be filing in the coming days.”
