Lawsuit Update: Gabehart Calls JGR Competition Team “Dysfunctional,” Ty Gibbs “Not Accountable”
What’s Happening? Former Joe Gibbs Racing Crew Chief and Competition Director Chris Gabehart has filed a new response slamming JGR as…
Shane Van Gisbergen won his first career NASCAR race in his first career start on Sunday. Wow, that is still crazy to write/read. Regardless, rumors have begun swirling about what he could do in 2024. SVG himself said after the race that he would run one more year in Australia before potentially moving on, but his team owner said that he would not stop SVG from pursuing NASCAR in 2024. So, where could SVG go?
This is probably the most likely of all scenarios. The connection is already there as Van Gisbergen won with Trackhouse this past weekend. Of course, Trackhouse does not have a third car currently in the stable, but did anyone expect Justin Marks to buy out Chip Ganassi?
Marks is obviously passionate about bringing some of these other drivers to NASCAR to run, hence Project 91. What if he maybe brings in Van Gisbergen on a part-time basis for 2024 before going full-time in 2025. It’s a possibility.
Stewart-Haas Racing is in a strange situation. Aric Almirola’s future plans are still undetermined, and SHR is at the beginning of an obvious rebuild. Why not build around a driver like SVG?
It would definitely be a difficult transition for both sides as SHR is not what it once was. That being said, it is not out of character for Tony Stewart to hire the more oddball, off-the-wall type drivers. Think of drivers like Kurt Busch, Josh Berry, Clint Bowyer, and the like.
23XI Racing has been a candidate to expand to three cars next season. They have sort-of done that with Travis Pastrana driving in the Daytona 500 in the 67 car for the team. Denny Hamlin has also been notably aggressive when it comes to acquiring driver talent.
He hired Tyler Reddick away from Richard Childress Racing, and he found a way to get Reddick out of that contract a season early. Hamlin would receive far less hostility if he tired to hire away SVG.
Kaulig Racing is a team that is just missing something. They have a young driver who has talent in Justin Haley, and A.J. Allmendinger is a nice veteran presence. However, the results thus far have been mixed.
It’s tough to say whether or not SVG would make Kaulig work for him, but he could be an intriguing prospect for them. It’s tough to say who he could replace, but could Kaulig try to open up a third car for him. Could they maybe give him an full-time Xfinity/ part-time Cup type of ride for a season?
Team Penske offers SVG something interesting, options. Does he want to go sports car racing, IndyCar Racing, or full-time in NASCAR? SVG has avenues to do all of that if he were to fun for Team Penske.
Add to that Roger Penske has a history in the V8 Supercars Championship. IndyCar driver Scott McLaughlin ran for Penske in that series before moving over to IndyCar. No matter what SVG wants to do, Penske can give him the avenue to do it.
Is next year the right year for Van Gisbergen to make the jump? That is hard to say, but it’s safe to say that his options are open to run in NASCAR again at some point.
An email sent by former Joe Gibbs Racing Competition Director Chris Gabehart claims that resentment towards him from members of the Gibbs family made him feel that the future of JGR was a “no-win situation.”
Last week, Joe Gibbs Racing filed a lawsuit against former Crew Chief and Competition Director Chris Gabehart, claiming that the former Daytona 500 Champion had schemed to steal vital information from the team in the lead-up to his departure from JGR for Spire Motorsports.
Not even ten days since JGR filed this lawsuit, the two have continued to trade barbs and accusations back and forth through the court system.
In a filing earlier this week, Gabehart accused the team of misleading him in his duties as competition director in 2025, and specifically calling out JGR’s No. 54 team, driven by Joe Gibbs’ grandson Ty, alleging that the team received “differential treatment.”
Friday, an email sent to JGR CFO Tim Carmichael by Gabehart in November 2025 (released as part of this lawsuit) showed just how uncomfortable he had grown working at JGR during his tenure as Competition Director, with the industry veteran stating that Ty Gibbs and his mother, Heather, held “resentment” towards Gabehart.
The now former Competition Director went on to say in this email that, as the two were the future bosses of JGR, “I’m afraid that leaves me in a no-win situation.”
These exchanges, including the claims made by Gibbs in his filing earlier this week, have swept fans into a whirlwind of sorts, with the two sides even meeting in court today for the lawsuit’s first official hearing.
Of course, Gabehart’s claims about the state of operations at JGR pale in comparison to the accusations made by the Gibbs team in their initial lawsuit.
On Tuesday, the team even added Spire Motorsports, Gabehart’s current employer, as a co-defendant, and requested the court force Gabehart to sit out at least the 18 months since his termination before doing any work in NASCAR similar to his role at JGR.
The team is also asking that any information procured by Spire from Gabehart be returned, though the CEO of TWG Motorsports, which owns Spire, Dan Towriss, told Bob Pockrass of FOX Sports Friday that “Spire doesn’t want data from Joe Gibbs Racing. It doesn’t have data from Joe Gibbs Racing. No point in time has it had data from Joe Gibbs Racing.”
Alongside Spire, Gabehart adamantly denied any wrongdoing in a post to social media last week, saying, “I feel compelled to speak out today and forcefully and emphatically deny these frivolous and retaliatory claims.”
What’s Happening? Former Joe Gibbs Racing Crew Chief and Competition Director Chris Gabehart has filed a new response slamming JGR as…
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A few years ago, I looked at the racetracks preserved on iRacing that no longer exist in real life. After digging deeper, I expected to find one common reason they all shut down. Instead, each one tells a completely different story — from booming cities and land value spikes to ownership changes, broken promises, and even mysteries that still don’t have clear answers.
Some tracks were pushed out by urban development. Some lost the one person fighting to keep them alive. Others faded due to declining support — or were never meant to last forever in the first place. No two closures are the same, and that’s what makes this deep dive so fascinating.
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NASCAR’s documentary series “Full Speed,” which used to live on Netflix, had its first two seasons look back at entire playoff runs. But now, NASCAR is shifting the series to Amazon Prime Video for its third season, and the scope of the series will also shift to new storylines.
Dropping on March 5, the new season is aimed at zooming in on one event: the 2026 Daytona 500. Instead of a multi-episode run, this time it’s a single-episode documentary that goes all in on one race.
The film will follow big names and storylines from the Daytona 500. It will spotlight the winner, Tyler Reddick, and lean into driver storylines around the weekend. That includes Kyle Busch trying to get his groove back, Brad Keselowski clawing his way back after a broken leg, Connor Zilisch being pushed as the next big thing, and Noah Gragson bringing chaos wherever he goes.
Some fans might question the move away from Netflix, especially after Season 1 pulled in 3.4 million views in the first half of 2024. Then in 2025, the docuseries clocked 900,000 views after its early May release and added another 200,000 between July and December.
But with Prime Video stepping in as one of NASCAR’s broadcast partners, moving the series lines up with a bigger play to keep content under one roof.
Amazon has already dipped into NASCAR storytelling with projects like the docuseries Earnhardt about Dale Earnhardt. Moving Full Speed to Prime follows the same playbook. And for fans who still haven’t seen previous installments, the first two seasons are also heading over to Prime Video.
However, Reddit fans are divided in their opinions about the decision. Some fans actually get why NASCAR changed the format and platform, while a chunk of fans think leaving Netflix is risky because Netflix is where casual viewers stumble into shows. Others push back, pointing out that Prime actually has a massive reach in the U.S. and strong marketing muscle.
While one fan commented, “Makes sense. I highly doubt they were gonna make a new season around a points format they don’t use anymore,” another stated, “Idk the semantics and numbers and everything behind it so I’m probably talking out of my ass….buttttttt….at what point does nascar take the less money for the exposure. You need to be on Netflix, people watch Netflix. People don’t watch Amazon video as much. Who’s gonna watch this that isn’t a nascar fan already. You have a higher chance of getting people lost on Netflix than lost on Amazon Prime Video.”
One fan commented on the news, saying, “100%. I have Amazon Prime and Netflix. AP is a train wreck for videos especially now with their ad program with videos. I steer clear because Netflix is still ad free.” Another fan supported NASCAR’s move, saying, “Prime actually has slightly more subscribers in the USA and in my opinion is better at marketing. It’s a lateral move.”
Another backed NASCAR, stating, “Most NASCAR fans will find some way to be on prime in the month of June. I think they are counting on people watching it then if they have not already seen it. Similar to the Earnhardt documentary that dropped in June last year.”
Another fan comment implied something less glamorous yet very real, pointing out that the Netflix seasons didn’t see a surge in viewership. The first season did okay, but later numbers dipped: “Netflix didn’t seem to work that well for the 2 playoff seasons.”
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