Denny Hamlin Heckles Spire Motorsports After Tough Chicagoland Weekend

What’s Happening?

NASCAR legend Denny Hamlin seemingly poked fun at the ongoing lawsuit between Spire Motorsports and Joe Gibbs Racing during this week’s episode of his podcast Actions Detrimental.

The ongoing lawsuit between Spire Motorsports and their new Chief Motorsports Officer, Chris Gabehart, and Gabehart’s former employer, Joe Gibbs Racing, has plenty of layers to it.

First, there is the beef between Gabehart and the Gibbs family, something seen in early filings from the long-time Crew Chief turned executive that slowly developed over his time as Competition Director last season.

Then there is Spire, which is trying to establish itself as a top team in the sport. Co-founder Jeff Dickerson has made his fair share of bold comments and remarks aimed at JGR over the past few months.

Still, there is another piece to the puzzle, the relationship between Gabehart and future NASCAR Hall of Famer Denny Hamlin.

Over six seasons together, the two scored 22 NASCAR Cup Series wins, including back-to-back Daytona 500s in 2019 and 2020. While their breakup after the 2024 season was shocking, Gabehart’s exit from JGR at the end of 2025 was even more shocking.

While Hamlin has not been entirely outspoken about the ongoing lawsuit between his current team and his long-time Crew Chief, which focuses on alleged data and trade secrets stolen from JGR by Gabehart prior to his exit, it’s easy to guess what side he has taken in the squabble.

In fact, during this week’s episode of Actions Detrimental, Hamlin poked fun at Spire after the team’s three entries had an unusually bad weekend at Chicagoland.

In the past, this weekend, which saw their drivers finish 14th, 22nd, and 29th, would have been a usual weekend for Spire; still, given the impressive showing by the team early this year, particularly from Carson Hocevar and Daniel Suarez, NASCAR’s return to Chicagoland came as a surprise.

Of course, the online community did not let this weekend slip by, with some jokingly tying the tough weekend to the alleged stolen JGR data by pointing out that there is no past NASCAR Next Gen race data or setups for Chicagoland, as the track had not hosted a race since 2019.

there’s no Gabehardt JGR setup sheet for Chicagoland! https://t.co/9EoBfblT0u

— KP 🦩 (@Andrettism) July 5, 2026

The implication here is that if Spire were benefiting from the alleged stolen data, this weekend would serve as proof.

While this is all fun and games when NASCAR fans are the ones theorizing about it, they weren’t the only ones who took notice of this, with Hamlin pointing it out during his podcast.

When discussing the team’s bad weekend, Hamlin looked up to his co-hosts with a smile and joked:

“All the Spire cars were bad. No past setups, though. . . I digress.” — Denny Hamlin

Why Did Spire Have a Bad Weekend?

The theories about why Spire had a bad weekend range beyond just this one tied to JGR.

For one, the team had very little past data (Next Gen or not) to rely on entering this weekend, given the fact that they had only ever turned 100 laps at the track in their history prior to this weekend’s race.

Furthermore, the team’s intermediate program hasn’t been the best this season, with Suarez averaging an 11.6 finish, Hocevar a 17.4 average finish, and veteran Michael McDowell a 26.0 average finish on traditional intermediates after this weekend’s race.

Even then, when JGR has accused Spire of using their data on track in court, the team has had a handful of reasonable rebuttals, pointing to the differences between Chevrolets and Toyotas, while also pointing to their close technical relationship with Hendrick Motorsports as a reason they would not need JGR’s data.

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