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…
Many NASCAR drivers’ journeys in the sport often include part-time efforts. Plenty of part-time drivers in NASCAR today perform well, and they might work their way into full-time rides in the future. These are the best of that bunch.
Kaden Honeycutt races part-time in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series for Niece Motorsports. He made some part-time starts in the previous two seasons, but this year has been a breakout year. He has four top-10s, more than any other Niece driver, including his best-career finish, fourth at Kansas.
This could turn heads, and given the struggles of Bayley Currey and Matt Mills, Honeycutt might be a candidate to take over a Niece Motorsports ride at the end of the season. Honeycutt is 21 years old, and that youth could make him attractive to bigger teams.
Despite a lack of funding, Ryan Truex has come into his own in a part-time effort with Joe Gibbs Racing. He has two wins over the past two seasons, six top-10s, and four top-fives in 13 starts. With brother Martin Truex Jr. retiring and an interest in racing part-time in 2025, could the pair work out a bigger deal together?
Ryan definitely could race full-time in Xfinity with a team like Gibbs, but the money has to be there. He did gain Certified Collision Center for the Pocono race, so maybe things are improving on the funding front.
Carson Kvapil is a multi-time CARS Tour Champion, and he’s impressed in limited starts at JR Motorsports. In five Xfinity Series appearances, he has three top-five finishes despite an average start of 23.8. While space at JRM might be limited, Kvapil could be a star.
Like many other drivers on this list, funding may be an issue for Kvapil. He may need to look outside JRM for a full-time ride, maybe to a place like Spire’s Truck Series team. Either way, Kvapil has some work to do to work his way up the ranks.
Connor Zilisch is a Trackhouse development driver seemingly set to race full-time in 2025. A recent report from Adam Stern indicates that Zilisch is “In discussion” with JRM to run full-time for the team next season.
Zikisch might be the best young driver in NASCAR right now. He has class wins in the Rolex 24 at Daytona and the 12 Hours of Sebring, and he won the pole in his first Truck Series start at COTA. He impresses anytime he gets behind the wheel.
William Sawalich is set to make his Xfinity Series debut this fall with Joe Gibbs Racing, and he competes part-time in the Truck Series for TRICON Garage. This comes on the back of the 2023 ARCA Menards Series East Championship, a title he is fighting Connor Zilisch to defend.
Sawalich has all the connections necessary to take his talents up the ladder. If JGR is willing to switch one of their part-time seats to full-time for him next year, he might end up in the Xfinity Series.
Despite much success in the Truck Series, Brett Moffitt has struggled to find a consistent place in NASCAR. He has 13 career wins in the series, including the 2018 Series Championship, but he lost that ride after the season. Most recently, he competed full-time in the Xfinity Series for AM Racing in 2023.
This year, he’s occasionally appeared in the Truck and Xfinity Series. In Xfinity, he finished 18th at Iowa for Joe Gibbs Racing, and in the Truck Series, he finished fifth at Kansas and 15th at Charlotte for TRICON Garage. Is there a place for Moffitt in full-time NASCAR?
What do you think about all this? Let us know on Discord or X what your take is, and don’t forget you can also follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and even YouTube.
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…
What do you think about this? Let us know your opinion on Discord or X. Don’t forget that you can also follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube.
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.
Watch Also:
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.”
Will you be watching on Prime Video? Let us know your opinion on Discord or X. Don’t forget that you can also follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube.