Spire Motorsports, Chris Gabehart countersue Joe Gibbs Racing in trade secrets case

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (CN) — Spire Motorsports and its Chief Motorsports Officer Chris Gabehart smacked back at Joe Gibbs Racing Wednesday evening, with counterclaims in the team’s trade secrets case.

Gibbs Racing sued Gabehart, its former competition director, in February, claiming that he stole confidential business secrets and planned to give them to rival team Spire Motorsports. It later tacked on Spire as a defendant, claiming it induced Gabehart to break his employment contract.

Gibbs Racing, which urged the court to prevent Gabehart from working for Spire, has thus far struggled to produce evidence that Gabehart has shared any racing data with Spire. In April, a federal court judge found that Gabehart can continue working as the case proceeds towards trial.

In its Wednesday countersuit, Spire said that Gibbs Racing had previously come to an implied agreement over soliciting each other’s employees.

In 2025, Gibbs Racing wanted to recruit car chief Robert “Cheddar” Smith, Spire said, and was given a copy of his employment agreement with Spire, which it used to offer him a job.

Smith was bound by a non-compete agreement, Spire said, but it agreed to release Smith from his contract so he could work for Gibbs Racing, in exchange for Gibbs Racing allowing Spire to hire an employee later on.

Gibbs Racing could also satisfy the contract with a $100,000 payment instead of releasing an employee from their non-compete agreement, Spire said. The team also claims that Gibbs Racing leveraged Smith’s knowledge and expertise, and that the car he is currently assigned to — No. 54, raced by Ty Gibbs — has had “marked improvements in performance” since he began working for Gibbs Racing.

Spire wanted to hire two other employees, but Gibbs Racing refused, Spire said, and hasn’t identified any staff it would be willing to release from its non-compete agreement.

Gibbs Racing also asked Spire to fire Gabehart, it added, calling Gibbs Racing’s legal case in “bad faith,” as Gabehart has signed a contract saying he will not disclose any racing information from his former team to Spire.

It is “unjust and inequitable” for Gibbs Racing to benefit from Smith’s expertise without compensating Spire, the team said, claiming that Gibbs Racing violated a contract and unjustly benefited at Spire’s expense.

Gabehart separately hit back at Gibbs Racing with a list of counterclaims, arguing that the team broke his employment contract, violated the North Carolina Wage and Hour Act, is attempting to enforce an inapplicable noncompete and trespassed on his personal accounts, among others.

Gibbs Racing’s legal case is a “calculated campaign to punish a dedicated former employee for exercising his contractual rights,” he said, intended to “exact retribution and create a public spectacle.”

Gabehart says he has complied with several forensic examinations, including having eight devices and cloud accounts searched.

Gibbs Racing’s forensic examiner, while supervised by the team’s attorneys, gave dozens of Gabehart’s privileged attorney-client communications to opposing counsel, Gabehart said, materials that were off limits in the court-ordered analysis.

“Despite this extensive and invasive forensic process going on for months — and despite having direct access to complete directories, forensic logs, and search hit reports generated from Mr. Gabehart’s devices and accounts — JGR has failed to identify a single, legitimate piece of JGR data that constitutes a trade secret or confidential information that Mr. Gabehart has used, transmitted, or disclosed to any third party to this point,” he said in his suit. “This failure is not incidental. It is because no such evidence exists.”

Gibbs Racing also did not pay Gabehart his owed performance bonuses, he said, and stopped paying his wages several months before issuing a termination letter. The company pressured him to work as crew chief for its No. 54 car, Gabehart said, with Ty Gibbs’ mother, Heather Gibbs, cutting him a $500,000 check.

The 18-month non-compete agreement he had with Gibbs Racing is overly broad, not limited to protecting the team’s business interest, and is unenforceable, Gabehart argued.

“JGR unilaterally stopped paying Mr. Gabehart his earned wages, spied on him through private investigators, subjected him to an invasive forensic examination, and then filed this lawsuit even after that examination demonstrated no evidence of wrongdoing,” he wrote.

Gabehart has admitted to taking photos of business data, but said he was aware of his confidentiality obligations and had no plan to use the information at Spire, and instead took the photos to document the 13 years he spent working at the company.

Gibbs Racing has heavily emphasized in court that the racing secrets photographed by Gabehart may have been leaked, telling U.S. District Judge Susan Rodriguez in March that other teams in NASCAR have discussed Gibbs Racing’s confidential information in garage areas.

Spire has protested the idea that Gabehart has provided the team any data, repeating that it has no want or desire for its competitor’s racing information.

Representatives for Gibbs Racing did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

Trial in the case is currently scheduled for January 2027.

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