Lawsuit: JGR Wants Further Investigation into Potential Destruction of Evidence
What’s Happening? In a new court filing, Joe Gibbs Racing has requested expedited discovery into alleged deleted text messages shared between…
NASCAR veteran Chris Gabehart has responded to a recent court filing from his former employer, Joe Gibbs Racing, asking to dive deeper into deleted text messages between Gabehart and Spire Motorsports co-owner Jeff Dickerson.
Last week, the ongoing lawsuit between Joe Gibbs Racing and its former competition director, Chris Gabehart, and his current employer, Spire Motorsports, took a turn with JGR hyperfocusing on deleted texts between Spire co-owner Jeff Dickerson and Gabehart.
JGR claims that Gabehart, upon leaving for Spire, misappropriated “trade secrets,” such as Toyota team setups, for use at Spire, a claim that Gabehart and Spire adamantly deny.
The texts shared between the two prior to Gabehart’s now-controversial defection to Spire are known to have been deleted after Gabehart and Spire confirmed this to JGR.
In his response Wednesday afternoon, Gabehart called JGR’s pursuit of these messages “Desperate,” saying that the team is accusing first and asking questions later.
“JGR’s litigation strategy—file motion after motion, accuse first and ask questions later—cannot manufacture evidence of disclosure of confidential JGR information where none exists. JGR is clearly desperate. It has yet to identify a single verified instance in which Mr. Gabehart transmitted, disclosed, or used any JGR Confidential Information.”
Since these texts were first revealed to be deleted, Gabehart has maintained that he deleted them during a time when there was no threat of litigation, something he reiterates here, saying:
“The deletion occurred on November 15, 2025, when litigation was not on anyone’s mind, much less threatened or reasonably anticipated.”
Gabehart also says that recovery efforts for the texts are ongoing and that they could be recovered, and that he is not opposed to JGR subpoenaing his service provider for the texts.
What’s Happening? In a new court filing, Joe Gibbs Racing has requested expedited discovery into alleged deleted text messages shared between…
A court document from JGR, filed in late March, said that Gabehart admitted his text messages with Dickerson, prior to November 15 of last year, were deleted, and that Gabehart claims he did not foresee any legal responsibility to retain them.
JGR said at the time that the number of texts was unknown, but that timelines of their deletion linked up to crucial moments in Gabehart’s move to Spire.
The team further looked into these texts last week, asking the court to dig deeper into the deleted texts between the two by filing a motion for expedited discovery, which would accelerate the process.
JGR did this after Spire’s legal team informed them that Dickerson’s texts to Gabehart prior to January 26 of this year were also deleted.
They want to obtain these texts more quickly, as they risk losing potential evidence, and to look further into the reason for their deletion, “necessary to preserve relevant evidence that is at risk of being lost before merits discovery, and to provide greater information about the circumstances leading to the deletions.”
While JGR has drilled home their fears of Spire using Gabehart in a similar position to the one he held at JGR with their proprietary information, the team and former Daytona 500-winning Crew Chief have continually called out alleged wrongdoings by JGR in Gabehart’s final season with the team.
What’s Happening? Joe Gibbs Racing claims that former Competition Director Chris Gabehart and Spire Motorsports are already utilizing “trade secrets” that…
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