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…
What was expected to be a tire-wear race ended up disappointing fans. Drivers started the race by saving their tires but soon realized the tire wear was almost non-existent. After 125 laps, Kyle Larson was told, “Your tires are good” while in practice, tires were cording after 30 laps. The race was completely dominated by Kyle Larson, who led 411 of the 500 laps. It was Larson’s 31st career win, his third at Bristol.
Pole Sitter: Alex Bowman #48 [14.912]
Outside Pole: Ricky Stenhouse Jr #47 [14.925]
Drivers to the Rear: Logano, Nemechek
DNQ: None
Laps: 500 Laps | 266.5 Miles
Stage 1: 125 Laps
Stage 2: 125 Laps
Final Stage: 250 Laps
Fuel Window: 190 Laps
Pit Road Speed: 30 MPH
Broadcast: FS1 – Mike Joy, Kevin Harvick, Clint Bowyer
Green Flag was at 3:14 pm EST
Drivers started off saving their tires, believing the track would not take down the rubber. After a few laps, however, they realized tire wear was not nearly as excessive as in practice, which means everyone went full throttle. Kyle Larson dominated and won the first stage without difficulties, lapping up to 24th place.
1st. Kyle Larson #5
2nd. Denny Hamlin #11
3rd. Justin Haley #7
4th. Alex Bowman #48
5th. Carson Hocevar #77
6th. Christopher Bell #20
7th. Ryan Blaney #12
8th. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. #47
9th. Ty Gibbs #54
10th. AJ Allmendinger #16
The second segment started much as the first one ended; Larson dominated and led every lap without a challenger until a Shane van Gisbergen spin brought out the first caution of the day. There were a few takers on pit road, but even on 50-lap fresher tires, they were not able to move forward. Kyle Larson dominated again and won the stage by 2 seconds over teammate Alex Bowman.
1st. Kyle Larson #5
2nd. Alex Bowman #48
3rd. Christopher Bell #20
4th. Carson Hocevar #77
5th. Denny Hamlin #11
6th. Justin Haley #7
7th. Ty Gibbs #54
8th. Ryan Blaney #12
9th. Chase Briscoe #19
10th. Tyler Reddick #45
Again, Kyle Larson was dominant. On the racetrack, his lead was never contested, and it wasn’t until green flag pit stops began that Larson lost the race lead, which he had for 350 consecutive laps. Until pit stops, the race had 1 lead change, the fewest ever at Bristol, tied with the 1976 August race, won by Cale Yarborough. It ended up having 4.
Ryan Blaney tried to stretch his fuel, banking on a caution for a great finishing position. Despite being on 100+ laps older tires, his lap times were on par with Kyle Larson, but he eventually had to pit for fuel, giving the race lead back to Larson. Blaney led 48 laps in the process.
It looked like Denny Hamlin had something for Kyle Larson in the closing laps, but Larson was able to hold on and win his second straight Bristol race after leading 411 laps. It was the 7th ever 1-2 finish for Larson-Hamlin, and it was Larson on top for the first time.
1st. Kyle Larson #5
2nd. Denny Hamlin #11
3rd. Ty Gibbs #54
4th. Chase Briscoe #19
5th. Ryan Blaney #12
6th. William Byron #24
7th. Ross Chastain #1
8th. Christopher Bell #20
9th. A.J. Allmendinger #16
10th. Austin Dillon #3
11th. Carson Hocevar #77
12th. Josh Berry #21
13th. Justin Haley #7
14th. Kyle Busch #8
15th. Chase Elliott #9
16th. Brad Keselowski #6
17th. Austin Cindric #2
18th. Tyler Reddick #45
19th. Bubba Wallace #23
20th. Ryan Preece #60
21st. John Hunter Nemechek #42
22nd. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. #47
23rd. Noah Gragson #4
24th. Joey Logano #22
25th. Chris Buescher #17
26th. Erik Jones #43
27th. Zane Smith #38
28th. Riley Herbst #35
29th. Cole Custer #41
30th. Michael McDowell #71
31st. Jesse Love #33
32nd. Ty Dillon #10
33rd. Daniel Suarez #99
34th. Corey Lajoie #01
35th. Todd Gilliland #34
36th. Cody Ware #51
37th. Alex Bowman #48
38th. Shane van Gisbergen #88
39th. Josh Bilicki #66
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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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