Hanging over much of NASCAR’s offseason was a nine-day trial that ended with the sanctioning body of stock car racing settling with Michael Jordan’s 23XI Racing and another team, Front Row Motorsports.
Now, the sport is seemingly headed back to court.
Joe Gibbs Racing filed a lawsuit in the Western District of North Carolina on Thursday against the team’s former competition director, Chris Gabehart. Gibbs’ team alleges that Gabehart “embarked on a brazen scheme to steal JGR’s most sensitive information and use it for the benefit of a direct competitor in NASCAR — Spire Motorsports.”
USA TODAY Sports obtained a copy of the lawsuit, where JGR seeks to recover damages of up to $8 million because Gabehart allegedly violated “his contractual obligations and wrongfully” used “JGR’s confidential information and trade secrets.”
In a statement released Friday afternoon, Gabehart denied the claims and called them false, characterizing the lawsuit as