“Other duties are fair game,” Judge Rodriguez said as she issued a sharply limited restraining order that stopped far short of what Joe Gibbs Racing hoped to achieve. In a brief 10-minute hearing of the JGR lawsuit, Judge Susan C. Rodriguez ruled that Chris Gabehart is prohibited only from performing tasks at Spire Motorsports that directly overlap with his former responsibilities as JGR’s competition director. Crucially, she refused to bar him from continuing his new job.
For JGR, this is a major setback. The team entered federal court seeking a sweeping Temporary Restraining Order that would effectively sideline Gabehart and freeze his involvement with Spire during litigation. Instead, the judge made it clear that the court did not see grounds to halt his employment as the JGR lawsuit continues. To reinforce that point, she placed a $100,000 bond on JGR, a financial guarantee required when a party obtains a restraining order that could harm the other side.
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From the perspective of Gabehart and Spire, the ruling changes nothing. They have consistently maintained that Gabehart’s role as Chief Motorsports Officer at Spire is fundamentally different from the day-to-day competition director position he held at JGR. The judge’s order aligns with that narrative. It allows Gabehart to continue performing “other duties” at Spire without interruption.
“I’m happy with the decision. We take trade secrets super serious and we’re not hypocrites about it,” Spire co-owner and CEO Jeff Dickerson said after the ruling.
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However, the ruling does require Gabehart to return all JGR data and information, a point the court emphasized as the litigation continues to unfold. Both sides will return to court on March 16, when the judge will address JGR’s request for expedited discovery and a broader preliminary injunction.
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For now, though, JGR walks away with little more than a symbolic restriction and a six-figure financial burden. On the other hand, Spire and Gabehart move forward largely unhindered. The final outcome still looks far away as the JGR lawsuit moves forward.