A judge has issued a preliminary injunction in the Joe Gibbs Racing lawsuit against Chris Gabehart, requiring him to stop using or disclosing confidential trade secrets. Gabehart can continue working at Spire Motorsports but not in a role similar to his previous position at Joe Gibbs Racing.
Key points
Judge Susan C. Rodriguez issued a preliminary injunction.
Chris Gabehart must cease using Joe Gibbs Racing trade secrets.
Gabehart can work at Spire Motorsports under certain conditions.
Joe Gibbs Racing seeks $8 million in damages from Gabehart.
Mentioned in this story
Joe Gibbs RacingChris GabehartSpire Motorsports
Motorsport photo
Motorsport photo
In simplest terms, the preliminary injunction ruling issued by Judge Susan C. Rodriguez in the Joe Gibbs Racing v. Chris Gabehart and Spire Motorsports lawsuit is fundamentally no different than the Temporary Restraining Order everyone has acted under over the past month.
As part of the ruling issued on late Thursday night:
Gabehart shall ‘immediately cease and desist’ from ‘retaining, transferring, using or copying’ any confidential Joe Gibbs Racing trade secrets. Gabehart shall ‘immediately cease and desist’ from disclosing JGR trade secret Gabehart shall return any such trade secrets in his possession back to JGR Gabehart is allowed to continue working at Spire but not in any capacity similar to his final year at Joe Gibbs Racing, basically meaning in any capacity similar to a ‘competition director’
This is basically the same standards Judge Rodriguez asked all the parties to adhere to over the past month while she heard arguments from both parties.
What are the key terms of the injunction ruling in the Joe Gibbs Racing lawsuit?
The injunction requires Chris Gabehart to cease using or disclosing Joe Gibbs Racing's trade secrets and to return any such information he possesses.
Can Chris Gabehart continue working at Spire Motorsports after the injunction?
Yes, Gabehart can work at Spire Motorsports, but he cannot serve in a role similar to his previous position as competition director at Joe Gibbs Racing.
What prompted the lawsuit between Joe Gibbs Racing and Chris Gabehart?
Joe Gibbs Racing is seeking $8 million in damages from Chris Gabehart, who was their former competition director, for allegedly misusing their trade secrets.
Who issued the injunction in the Joe Gibbs Racing vs. Chris Gabehart case?
The preliminary injunction was issued by Judge Susan C. Rodriguez.
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What is new, however, is Judge Rodriguez concluding that Joe Gibbs Racing has shown a likelihood of success on the merits that Gabehart misappropriated JGR’s trade secrets, even if they have not shown a likelihood of success on the claims that he shared them with Spire.
Recall, Gabehart was accused of taking 21 pictures or screenshots of trade secrets from Joe Gibbs Racing’s servers and sharing them with his personal devices. It is something Gabehart’s legal team has said the longtime crew chief and engineer ‘regrets’ and is ‘embarrassed’ over but turned them over to his former employer and maintains were never shared with his now current employer.
Gabehart has also been accused of syncing files off JGR’s servers to his personal devices, while also continuing to access them after agreeing to a parting of ways with Coach Joe Gibbs Racing.
The text below, in italics, have been taken directly from Judge Rodriguez’s order on Thursday night.
“JGR has shown that Defendant Gabehart had access to JGR’s Confidential Information, as defined in his Employment Agreement, and Gabehart agreed to not disclose such information. Despite this, Defendant Gabehart took copies of JGR’s Confidential Information on his personal cell phone and his personal storage drives without JGR’s consent. Gabehart later admitted to taking the photographs of JGR’s information with his cell phone.”
What was on those files?
“JGR has specifically enumerated the files containing trade secrets that Defendant Gabehart acquired through improper means, including, but not limited to, comprehensive post-race audit and analyses of team and driver performance for the entire 2025 NASCAR season; complete team payroll details including job titles, contract length, annual compensation, incentive compensation, and compensation plans for prior years; an employee compensation calculator used to project and plan pay for key JGR positions; driver pay for the 2025 and 2026 NASCAR seasons; revenues from sponsors, partners, and other business arrangements for the 2024, 2025, and 2026 NASCAR seasons; JGR’s pit crew analytics for the 2024 NASCAR season; and detailed analytics of racecar tires used to assess impact on race results.
“Other files identified by JGR that contained trade secrets included: (a) a 141 page .pdf file titled ‘Post Race Data Analysis’ for a 2025 Las Vegas race containing all of JGR’s data analytics including data JGR measures at races and how it measures that data; (b) more than 20 set up and simulation files which are reports generated by proprietary software using inputs that hundreds of different JGR employees manually add based off their know-how, historical data, and simulations to determine the best possible racecar setup; (c) a document detailing proprietary engine outputs and recommended gear shift points; (d) a document detailing the manner in which JGR sorts and run tires through a race; (e) a document detailing how JGR estimates fuel mileage for its drivers and competitors during races and adjustments to strengthen accuracy; (f) a document showing JGR’s process for evaluating performance during races which could immediately help competitors improve race execution and performance; (g) a photo of a document detailing the manner in which JGR measures and seeks to eliminate subpar pit stops and its bonus structure for its pit crews for successful pit stops; (h) a spreadsheet listing base compensation and bonus for key members ofJ GR’s teams; and (i) a document comparing a JGR driver’s performance at a specific race to that of a Spire driver.”
Again, however, Judge Rodriguez concluded for now that there is no evidence submitted by Joe Gibbs Racing that Gabehart has shared any of those trade secrets with Spire or anyone else.
“JGR has not clearly shown that Spire acquired, used, or disclosed any of the JGR trade secrets resulting in actual or threatened misappropriation. In fact, JGR has not identified a specific trade secret thatDefendant Spire has misappropriated, but instead generally points to the information obtained by Defendant Gabehart.”
Judge Rodriguez says North Carolina courts have discussed but declined to adopt a philosophy of ‘inevitable disclosure’ that expects a former employee to inevitably disclose trade secrets with a new employee.
“JGR acknowledges that the doctrine has not been formally adopted in North Carolina despite some courts discussing it, but in a roundabout fashion still attempts to get the Court to apply the underlying premise. Therein lies the problem. JGR has not specifically identified which trade secrets that Spire has misappropriated or threatened to misappropriate other than the information taken by Defendant Gabehart, which at its core is based on the theory that Defendant Gabehart will inevitably disclose such information to Spire.”
The judge points out that Spire has done its part to prevent Gabehart from sharing trade secrets by not allowing him access to Spire networks but also making him sign a nondisclosure agreement upon being hiring as Chief Motorsports Officer.
As for the deleted text messages that Gabehart and Spire co-owner mutually deleted from their respective phones, and have yet to be able to recover or produce, Judge Rodriguez also says that is not enough to infer intent.
There is still another expedited discovery motion regarding these communications, not to mention standard discovery still to go to resolve that matter, should litigation continue in advance of a possible November trial.
“The Court is not making any finding as to expedited discovery or spoliation at this time. This issue will be briefed separately by the parties and taken up by the Court with a more fulsome record.”
Judge Rodriguez is also enforcing against Gabehart an 18-month non-compete against JGR, but again, only in terms of his previous roles at his previous team, competition director and crew chief.
This matter will continue, with both sides preparing to fully delve into fact discovery, meaning the obtaining of documents and communications pertinent to the case from last year up until communications became client-attorney-privileged over the winter.