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…
As Silly Season continues to roll on, many surprising names find themselves on the sidelines without a ride for the 2024 season. What is it about some of these drivers that is keeping them from the Cup Series full-time?
Ryan Truex has only run three full-time seasons in his NASCAR career. He ran full-time in the Truck Series in 2017 and 2021 and full-time in the Xfinity Series in 2018. Aside from that, he won two ARCA Menards Series East Championships in 2009 and 2010.
He also won an Xfinity Series race this year in Joe Gibbs Racing equipment, so, he can win races. However, what is keeping him back is likely a lack of funding. Over his last two part-time Xfinity Series seasons, Truex has run cars primarily sponsored by Toyota. This means that Truex does not have a ton of funding behind him, which could limit him because of how important funding is.
2011 Daytona 500 winner, Trevor Bayne, went on a brief hiatus from racing, but he has come back over the last couple of years. He came back with a fury in 2022 with seven top-10 finishes and five top-5 finishes in nine races with Joe Gibbs Racing. However, Bayne was supposed to join a team full-time in 2023.
According to Kelly Crandall of RACER, Bayne said that he had a Truck Series deal lined up for 2023 before a sponsor backed out. At the end of the day, like most other drivers, it comes down to funding. However, even for Bayne, his Cup Series career was never super spectacular as he never finished better than 22nd in points in his full-time Cup Series seasons. It seems that Trucks or Xfinity is where he can go next, but, it depends on whether or not he can grab the funding.
Noah Gragson was indefinitely suspended earlier this year, and that is why he is out of the sport currently. However, what could keep him out of a full-time ride for next year? He has been reinstated, so, he can race again.
First off, his performance with Legacy Motor Club was awful He has zero top-10 finishes with only two top-20 finishes. Secondly, does Gragson bring enough funding to join a prominent Cup Series ride? He likely lost a lot of sponsors, and Toyota was reportedly looking to replace him before he got suspended.
Brett Moffitt is a NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Champion, yet, he has not even sniffed the top level of the sport since 2017. There are a couple of things that could be keeping Moffitt out of the top level of the sport. First of all, funding is a factor like it is with most other drivers on this list.
Performance is also a major factor as Moffitt has only one top-10 finish in 45 Cup Series starts. Another thing might be Moffitt’s mentality. If he wants to put himself in the best place to win races, then running in the Cup Series may not be his best place. Maybe running in the Truck Series or Xfinity Series full-time could allow him to win races.
Matt DiBenedetto has had a very complicated career. From driving for underfunded Cup Series teams to working his way up to The Wood Brothers to winning in the Truck Series to now being a free agent. What is keeping him out of Cup full-time?
Some theorized that his now-deleted video talking about how difficult it was leaving The Wood Brothers may have alienated some race teams. However, he still found a way to get a full-time Truck Series ride, and he won there too. Maybe he has had some trouble finding funding in recent years, but, he also failed to win a race in the Cup Series. It’s possible that performance may have held him back.
Getting to the top level of NASCAR is a very complicated endeavor, and different things hold different drivers back. Will any of these drivers find a way to the Cup Series?
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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