Following his response last week to the Joe Gibbs Racing lawsuit announcement post on X, Chris Gabehart and his team recently filed a declaration explaining why he left JGR. He said that while he was named competition director in the 2024 offseason, the role turned out to be smoke and mirrors. The duties and the way JGR ran its teams did not match what he signed up for.
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In the filing, Gabehart said he raised concerns about a lack of accountability on the No. 54, which Joe Gibbs oversaw, and how the promised autonomy kept slipping through his fingers. What was pitched as control over competition became a tug-of-war with ownership, especially around the #54 of Ty Gibbs.
He said he was promised a COO-style seat overseeing competition with room to make decisions. Instead, he found himself tied up with Joe Gibbs, executives, and family members on even routine calls, a setup he could not stomach for long.
Gabehart said there was pressure to serve as No. 54 crew chief despite his pushback, warning it would stall long-term progress. He relented in June 2025 for nine races before walking away. He claims JGR kept nudging him into crew chief duty, which led to a November 2025 notice invoking terms for a shorter non-compete and a $100,000 payout upon separation.
In a declaration, Gabehart says the JGR competition director job was not as advertised.
He also had serious concerns about the lack of accountability on the 54 because Joe Gibbs personally managed it.
Gabehart says he was undermined by this; pressured into a crew chief role. pic.twitter.com/G9OhFK9RW8
— Matt Weaver (@MattWeaverRA) February 25, 2026
After the split, Gabehart claimed unpaid wages from November 2025 and issues with COBRA coverage that led to denied health claims. In the filing, Gabehart admitted that he photographed internal JGR files on November 7, 2025, but said there was no intent to cross any line. He also claimed he was told to tell people he was “on vacation” while the separation deal was ironed out.
Denny Hamlin’s former crew chief said the offer from Spire Motorsports came out of the blue. “Following receipt of the offer from Spire on November 13, 2025, I created a folder in my Google Drive named ‘Spire’ that I used as my personal working space to evaluate the job offer and consider my options since I understood JGR and I were working towards a mutual separation agreement. “I did access that folder after it was created.”
“However, I did not use any confidential JGR information (including any confidential information that was contained in subfolders contained in that file) while working in the folder. At all times, I understood my confidentiality obligations to JGR and had no intent to violate those obligations.”
He added that he paid for a forensic review himself, and the results backed his stance that there was no proof he transmitted, distributed, used, or shared any JGR material.
No text messages, no email attachments, and no spread of files were found to be shared. A January 21, 2026, email from the examiner said he found no texts or attachments tied to the files JGR flagged, framing the lawsuit as payback for his move to Spire rather than a shield for trade secrets.
He argued that an injunction barring him from this line of work would not just pinch; it would shut the door on his career. The damage would go beyond lost pay as his standing and path forward would take a hit if he were kept out of the field.
