Chris Gabehart will be limited in his duties as the chief motorsports officer at Spire Motorsports after a judge issued a partial restraining order on Monday.
U.S. District Judge Susan C. Rodriguez of the Western District of North Carolina handed down a ruling that prevents Gabehart from serving the role of competition director that he used to hold with Joe Gibbs Racing, which is suing him.
JGR had filed a motion asking for the court to halt Gabehart’s employment with Spire.
However, the Monday order will still permit Gabehart to work with Spire’s Truck Series, Late Model and Sprint Car teams, plus Andretti Autosport IndyCar, which, like Spire, is under the TWG Global umbrella.
JGR sued Gabehart last month, accusing him of sharing confidential information and trade secrets as he was looking to leave his old job to work for Spire, a competitor. The suit, which seeks damages of at least $8 million, was later amended to include Spire as a defendant.
In a statement on Monday, JGR wrote, “We are pleased with today’s ruling by the United States District Court for the Western District of North Carolina for a temporary restraining order enforcing the terms of our contract with Chris Gabehart. We will continue the legal process to protect our information and fight for what is right for our race team, our employees, and our partners.”
Gabehart, 44, worked 13 years at JGR, including a lengthy stretch as Denny Hamlin’s crew chief and more recently as the director of competition. His base salary last year reportedly was $1 million before bonuses.
Motorsport.com reported that a JGR investigation found that Gabehart set up a folder on his computer, shared to his personal cloud storage, that listed team details including salaries and performance reviews of drivers, crew chiefs and pit crews.
JGR alleges that Gabehart looked at those files in the midst of finalizing his departure from the team on the same day he had a meeting with Spire co-owner Jeff Dickerson.
JGR is owned by Pro Football Hall of Fame coach Joe Gibbs, 85, a three-time Super Bowl-winning head coach of the Washington franchise. In NASCAR, his drivers have won five Cup Series championships and four Daytona 500s. Gibbs is also a member of the NASCAR Hall of Fame.
–Field Level Media
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