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…
Although perhaps best known for its summer programs, Victory Junction – a Randleman, North Carolina-based camp for children with serious illnesses and chronic medical conditions – operates year-round.
That’s great news, especially for parents who might be initially reluctant to leave their child or children for four or five consecutive days at a place where they’ve never been, and that’s potentially several hours from home.
Before applying for their kids to attend summer camp, many parents join their children for a Family Weekend Camp at the sprawling 543-acre Victory Junction property, the vast majority of which came by way of donations from NASCAR’s legendary Petty family, which co-founded Victory Junction in 2004.
Victory Junction hosts its Family Weekend Camps throughout the year, with many happening in the fall. These short visits are a great way for families to get acquainted and comfortable with Victory Junction and all it has to offer, before sending their kids to camp on their own in the summer.
“To be able to be a part of Family Weekend kind of takes away the nervousness for the kids, of going away to camp, because they’re familiar with it,” said Megan Turbeville, who recently participated in her first Family Weekend Camp along with her husband, Taylor, and their three children – including 13-year-old son Tannon and 10-year-old daughter Ellie, who both deal with Type 1 diabetes.
Neither Turbeville parent knew much of anything about Victory Junction before arriving for Family Weekend.
“It was really a blessing to be able to experience it,” Megan Turbeville said. “It just kind of gets the kids familiar with the facilities and amenities and how everything is run. And it’s a neat way for us parents to get to see the kids experiencing things they may not otherwise get to do.”
The Turbevilles, who live in the Myrtle Beach, South Carolina area, about three-and-a-half hours from Victory Junction, made the trip north for Family Weekend at the recommendation of some friends who also live in the Myrtle Beach area.
Those friends, Sarah Crist and her longtime boyfriend Bryan, have sent Sarah’s son, Stephen, and his younger sister, Nellie, to Victory Junction summer camp two different years, and the family has attended two Family Weekends together.
Stephen, who is now 13, deals with eosinophilic esophagitis – a chronic gastrointestinal condition that closes the throat, causes vomiting and requires specially-made food.
But Victory Junction, which hosts a camp in the summer designed just for kids with gastrointestinal disorders, has been able to accommodate Stephen’s needs each time he’s been to camp, whether in the summer or at Family Weekend.
“Victory Junction gave him a space where it was almost like he had a superpower,” Sarah Crist said. “In some weird way, it was almost like the disease that made him feel like he’s ‘other’ actually makes him feel special and included at Victory Junction.”
The only other place outside of home where Stephen has consistently felt comfortable eating the food is Disney World.
“This was a big thing for him to go to Victory Junction and know that he could trust them and they were going to make separate food for him and have separate facilities and equipment to not cross-contaminate,” Bryan said. “He actually ended up liking a few of the things there a whole lot. He was raving about them after that first visit.”
From Crist’s perspective, Victory Junction’s Family Weekends, in particular, have left a mark on the entire family – not just Stephen.
“At Victory Junction, for parents, not only do we get to see our children and all the kids that give them that superpower over the summer, but it gives us a space to really relax and enjoy,” Crist said. “I’ve made friends, I’ve gotten to know people. You see familiar faces, and it’s not over sadness. It’s this joy that we share.
“Too often we feel heavy and sorrowful as parents in situations, but Victory Junction gives those parents a space to be joyful and have little adventures.”
Victory Junction’s Family Weekend Camps, which begin on Friday night and end on Sunday afternoon, are certainly full of adventure. Activities over the two nights and three days include dance parties, barn animal visits, fishing, boating, bowling, basketball, archery, painting, and arts and crafts.
“We were wore out,” Taylor Turbeville said with a laugh, reflecting back on the Family Weekend he attended in early September. “It was like we went to Disney World almost.”
“I’ve never seen our kids sit still for so long, busy painting their crafts,” Megan Turbeville added. “It was pretty cool.”
When the summer of 2026 rolls around, the Turbevilles hope to send their two children with Type 1 diabetes to camp at Victory Junction by themselves for the first time.
“A lot of these conditions are lifelong,” Taylor Turbeville said. “Family Weekends are a chance where these kids can kind of have some fun and feel comfortable with the medical staff on site. And it was the same for us. We know if something were to happen, they have enough resources there that are provided to make sure our kids are safe.
“Next year, if they do attend summer camp, we feel comfortable dropping them off for several days. It was wonderful seeing and meeting so many different people.”
To learn more about Victory Junction, including how you can offer support, visit VictoryJunction.org/Discover.
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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