Spire Owner Says Joe Gibbs Racing “Intentionally Staged” Lawsuit to Undermine Team’s Growth
What’s Happening? Spire Motorsports co-owner and co-founder Jeff Dickerson explained what he thinks is the true reason Joe Gibbs Racing filed…
In a new court filing, Joe Gibbs Racing has requested expedited discovery into alleged deleted text messages shared between the former JGR Competition Director and a co-owner of his new employer, Spire Motorsports.
Last week, ahead of a court hearing, Joe Gibbs Racing filed a brief to the court outlining key points about their ongoing lawsuit with former long-time JGR employee Chris Gabehart and Spire Motorsports, sharing some information about what they learned from Gabehart’s communications during discovery.
Gibbs claims that Gabehart, a former Daytona 500 champion with driver Denny Hamlin, amidst his planned defection to Spire this past offseason, stole trade secrets, such as setups, for the purpose of using them at Spire.
Gabehart and Spire have continually asserted that these claims are false, while also making other claims pertaining to JGR’s treatment of Gabehart prior to his departure.
What’s Happening? Spire Motorsports co-owner and co-founder Jeff Dickerson explained what he thinks is the true reason Joe Gibbs Racing filed…
In that document filed last Wednesday, JGR claimed, among other things, that Gabehart deleted text messages shared between him and Spire co-owner and co-founder Jeff Dickerson.
Per that filing:
“In response to JGR’s expedited discovery requests, Gabehart admitted that he deleted “text messages with Mr. Dickerson, the Spire co-owner, prior to November 15, 2025,” rendering them “not available at this time.” The timing of this deletion is telling. Gabehart deleted these communications the week after misappropriating JGR’s trade secrets on November 7, 2025 —and he accessed his “Spire” Google Drive folder on that very same day, November 15.”
Now, in a new filing, for the second time in this lawsuit, JGR is motioning for expedited discovery, this time, with a focus on looking further into deleted text messages shared between the two.
Their initial motion, filed in March, was, per a March 16 ruling, limited to just discovery into communication from Gabehart, not Spire, despite their request for “All Communications between Defendant Spire and Defendant Gabehart.”
Per the latest, JGR is asking to dig deeper into more deleted texts between Gabehart and Dickerson, as Spire’s legal team says Dickerson’s message, before January 26, has also been deleted.
“In response to Court-ordered expedited discovery, Gabehart disclosed to Joe Gibbs Racing, LLC for the first time that he deleted all of his text messages with Spire Motorsports, LLC’s co-owner, Jeff Dickerson and only his text messages with Dickerson-predating November 15, 2025. Shortly thereafter, Spire’s counsel informed JGR that Dickerson’s text messages with Gabehart prior to approximately January 26, 2026, have also been deleted.”
JGR says that expedited discovery, which accelerates the timeline to obtain information, will help provide further detail into the reason behind these deletions, saying, “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.”
For his part, per JGR’s filing last week, Gabhart says that he had no duty to maintain his deleted message as there was no reason to think he would be asked about it in court at the time, with JGR’s court document saying “there was no threat of litigation at the time.”
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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