Chris Gabehart, Spire Motorsports and Joe Gibbs Racing contested their first day in court on Friday afternoon in the Western District of North Carolina where oral arguments over a restraining order were heard but not ruled upon.
JGR is seeking a temporary restraining order against Gabehart, its former competition director who recently took the Chief Motorsports Officer job at Spire, amidst a lawsuit seeking over $8 million in damages over an alleged ‘brazen scheme’ to break a non-disclosure agreement and take proprietary data with him.
Judge Susan C. Rodriguez heard testimony from the lead attorneys representing all three parties, whom also had their clients fully represented in the gallery on Friday:
- Sarah F. Hutchins, Joe Gibbs Racing
- Cary B. Davis, Chris Gaebhart
- Joshua Davies, Spire Motorsports
Following oral arguments, Judge Rodriguez recessed for what she expected to be just 10 minutes. However, after 15 minutes, she sent word through a law clerk that she wanted every attorney present to meet in her chambers.
The recess was called at 3:20, roughly two hours into the proceedings, with chambers called at 3:35. During that time, all parties conducted in a meet-and-confer to reach a resolution regarding something about the restraining order motion.
The lawyers were not able to reach a resolution by 4:26 when court was back in session with a court reporter needing to leave by 4:30 for a pre-scheduled personal matter. Judge Rodriguez said she was prepared to make a judgement at that point but urged both parties to continue negotiating over the weekend, recognizing the impact of such a ruling.
“Are you sure you want to do this now,” Rodriguez asked. “Are you sure you do not want more time to talk?”
She said it in a way that encouraged them to not make her issue a ruling before the end of the night.
“It’s the court’s strong preference because I think we’re close,” she added.
At Her Honor’s urging, Davis said he saw no reason to not continue talking with his counterpart. Hutchins agreed. The judge continued to express her desire that both parties find concessions over the temporary restraining order.
Rodriguez said she knows the NASCAR community is small and tight-knit because she was a childhood fan.
“Everyone owes it to their clients to see if there is a middle ground,” Rodriguez told the lawyers.
At this point, the lawyers met in their respective huddles to see if they could even reach a resolution about this weekend, where Gabehart was expected to go to the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg to work with the Spire Truck Series team and sister-IndyCar organization Andretti Autosport.
“What do we get out of that,” Davis said to Davies and Gabehart regarding Gabehart sitting out this weekend. He then walked over to Hutchens and asked the same question and her facial expression indicated that there wasn’t agreement.
The judge recognized that too.
“I see we aren’t particularly close today,” she said.
So instead, unless both parties reach that middle ground over the weekend, Judge Rodriguez says she intends to find time on Monday afternoon to bring everyone back to the courthouse and issue a ruling on the temporary restraining order.
More forensic exams
What the parties did agreed to is the framework of a deal to allow for select devices to be examined where Gabehart may have 'stored or accessed' data from Joe Gibbs Racing.
That includes devices owned by Gabehart himself but also wife Jennifer. It’s unclear if Spire Motorsports will have devices examined in the process. Judge Rodriguez acknowledged that both sides generally agreed to something but wants the fine details in writing with the court by 9 p.m. on Sunday night.
About the non-compete
Much of the afternoon spent before Judge Rodriguez concerned the non-compete that Joe Gibbs Racing aims to enforce against Gabehart and Spire.
In his previous role as competition director, Hutchins says Gebehart 'had the keys to the kingdom' regarding every proprietary competitive aspect of Joe Gibbs Racing. She argued that Gabehart was in violation of his contract by joining Spire before the end of his agreement, 18 months from now. He also said he took data that wasn't under his competition director purview, like sponsorship package pricing.
Hutchins said her clients do not enforce non-competes when terminated by the company without cause or the expiration of a contract. She said that Gabehart left in the middle of the competition director contract he signed for the start of the 2025 season.
Much of her argument was that Gabehart had proprietary information and that damage will be caused by utilizing it against JGR as early as this weekend. The judge said that is 'speculative' because there is no evidence that Gabehart transferred any of the data he accessed or stored.
Judge Rodriguez said 'the mere possibility' that Gabehart might have given data to Spire 'is not enough' for a restraining order.
On that point, Davis said that 'Gabehart admits to taking the photos (of the data on his personal cell phone. He’s embarrassed. He knows it was stupid.' But also, Davis said that he 'stepped up to the plate' and paid for the forensic analysis out of pocket 'because he had nothing to hide.'
Hutchins said that Ganehart 'doesn’t get points' for doing that 'only after Joe Gibbs Racing found the breadcrumbs.'
Davis said Gabehart was ‘frustrated’ in the 24 hour period after meeting with Coach Gibbs to express his dissatisfaction with the status quo regarding his employment and job parameters.
“A dog likes his toys,” Davis said. “A baby likes his blanket. It was a year of his work.” He says that information was akin to his bible and the byproduct of his work.
Davis said that setups are not that closely of a guarded secret in the garage, something that will no doubt be disputed in the garage, and was by Hutchins on Friday as well.
Judge Rodriguez says she doesn’t blame Joe Gibbs Racing for wanting to ‘trust but verify’ that Gabehart didn’t share or continue to store select information. At the same time, she also wanted to know how Gabehart was able to access that information even after telling JGR that he intended to leave.
Hutchins said it is her understanding that JGR did take steps to protect their data but without additional forensic analysis, it’s not fully understood what Gabehart took or may have disseminated to Spire.
Overall, Judge Rodriguez said she was ‘sensitive’ to ‘lines of livelihood’ and having to render a decision that could impact someone’s ability to make a living.
Hutchins countered that in a sport where milliseconds make the difference between winning and losing a lap, there is sensitivity in recognizing the harm to Joe Gibbs Racing if their data is being used against them when it otherwise would have been protected by a non-compete and a non-disclosure.
She also said that while serving out his non-compete, Gabehart could work in the following areas and still make a living until it was time to join Spire
- Work for NASCAR
- Work for an IndyCar or Formula 1 team
- Motorsports media or broadcaster
- Work in the private sector
Davis said Gabehart has a very specialized set of skills and this was a 'once in a lifetime' opportunity for Spire to acquire someone like Gabehart and for Gabehart to join a team like Spire on the upswing.
Lastly, Davis said that Spire doesn't have any trade protected data from Joe Gibbs Racing and that they don't want it.
What's in a start date?
Judge Rodriquez could not get a straight answer from anyone on when Gabehart stated working for Spire. Of course, she wanted to know because when he started formally working with the team has consequence to the facts of when he formally ceased working at Joe Gibbs Racing.
Neither the attorney for Spire nor Gabehart could cite an exact date.
“I’m a little flabbergasted that no one knows that start date,” Rodriquez said. “It makes me wonder if something is going on there.”
Davies said ‘it was definitely in February.’
Gabehart claimed in his filing earlier this week that Joe Gibbs Racing did not pay the remainder of what he was owed, including a bonus for the team's performance last season.
Hutchins said 'to pay him during that period is absurd, while he's trying to steal from them' and also 'if there was a breach, Gabehart breached first.'
What is in the title?
Also a matter of debate on Monday is what exactly Gabehart is doing at Spire and how much of his new role is similar to the competition director role he had at Joe Gibbs Racing.
This is important because JGR says a non-compete is enforceable for a job that contains the same parameters as what he did over the course of the 2025 season. Representing Gabehart, Davis made a football analogy.
“Best I can do, is that in his role as competition director, there are four Cup teams, and he’s the offensive coordinator,” Davis said. “In his new role, Spire has a development program in other forms of racing, grassroots racers, a relationship with Hendrick Motorsports. He’s a head coach. He’s not involved in set-ups.”
Judge Rodriguez said head coaches typically know the plays their coordinators are running. She said there appears to be overlap between the two roles.
She later asked the same question of Davies, representing Spire, who provided a more technical answer.
“This is a different role,” Davies said. “Spire has competition directors and crew chiefs. His job is broader. Spire has NASCAR teams, Truck Series, grassroots, and he has an executive role, similar to what he wanted at JGR. It’s a two week old role, so it’s still being defined.”
Hutchins then argued later that how could Gabehart’s role be so incredibly vital if it’s only two weeks old and has such a nebulous description.
“What little he has shared with us, which is a concern to us as well, but this sounds a lot like his old job,” the JGR attorney said.
Closing moments
As court recessed, Coach Gibbs, Gabehart and Dickerson met in the room, somber faces across all three of them. Also present was Heather Gibbs, Coach’s daughter-in-law and a key executive at the team, JGR president Dave Alpern and Spire president Bill Anthony.
Gabehart and Gibbs, who had worked together for 13 years until at some point over the winter, both expressed sadness that it had come to this. Gabehart said he didn’t want to be here. Gibbs nodded his head and said he didn’t want it to come to this.
Then they parted ways and left the court.
The attorneys did not take questions and deferred instead to what was said on the record in the court room, which also didn’t address much of anything that happened in chambers or during meet-and-confers.
