Farah Ben Gamra
The legal dispute between Joe Gibbs Racing and Spire Motorsports keeps intensifying, and Spire co-owner Jeff Dickerson is really firing back at how his team has been painted in this whole mess.
The lawsuit stems from Spire’s decision to hire longtime NASCAR competition director Chris Gabehart after his split from Joe Gibbs Racing late in 2025. JGR claims Gabehart improperly took confidential team information and that his new job violates a non-compete agreement tied to his previous role. The team has asked the court to block him from continuing to work for Spire.
Dickerson disputes those accusations and said in court filings that the claims against his organization misrepresent what actually happened.
“JGR’s repeated attacks on Spire’s integrity are not well taken,” Dickerson wrote, in a filing obtained by Motorsports’ Matt Weaver. “Spire and JGR are colleagues in this industry. Both teams are entitled to respect. Both teams are on an equal footing and have the same charters that allow them to compete.”
According to Dickerson, Spire’s goal is simply to grow and become more competitive within the sport. He believes the legal action is aimed at slowing that effort rather than resolving a legitimate issue.
“This lawsuit is an effort to stifle Spire as it attempts to build a team that, one day, could rack up the number of wins that JGR touts,” Dickerson wrote. “Rather than allowing that competition to play out on the track, and rather than considering what brought JGR here in the first place, JGR has chosen to attack, disparage, and demean Spire.”
Earlier personnel move between teams resurfaces in dispute
Part of the disagreement between the teams dates back to an earlier staffing move. In 2025, Joe Gibbs Racing hired longtime car chief Robert Smith away from Spire to work on the №54 car driven by Ty Gibbs.
Dickerson said Spire allowed Smith to leave his contract so he could take the job at JGR, but the teams had an informal understanding that a similar move could eventually happen the other way.
“Importantly, Robert Smith, as a car chief, was part of the competition leadership arm at Spire, and JGR understood that Spire’s next attempted hire from JGR under the Trade Understanding would come from the competition arm, if not leadership, from JGR. That did not stop JGR from entering into the Trade Understanding.”
Spire later explored the possibility of hiring personnel from Joe Gibbs Racing after internal changes at the organization, but Dickerson said those attempts did not materialize.
The situation eventually returned to Gabehart. Dickerson said he met with him months before the hiring became official. During that conversation, he said it was clear Gabehart was struggling with the idea of leaving the team he had worked with for most of his career.
“I could tell that Mr. Gabehart did not take pleasure in the possibility of leaving his long-time employer,” Dickerson said in the filing. “I knew that Mr. Gabehart had devoted most of his career across more than a decade to serving JGR. I could tell when he spoke that it pained him to consider the possibility of leaving. I knew then that the workplace environment at JGR must have been toxic and unsustainable.”
Dickerson also said Gabehart made it clear he was not interested in simply taking the same job somewhere else if he left Joe Gibbs Racing.
“Mr. Gabehart stated that any future role he took would not be a lateral move,” Dickerson wrote. “Instead, he said that if he left JGR, he would be looking for a completely different role that would present a new challenge for him. He most certainly had no interest in doing what he was doing for JGR at the time.”
The case remains ongoing and could determine whether Gabehart is allowed to continue in his position with Spire Motorsports. If recent NASCAR history has taught us anything, it’s how ugly things can get during the legal war.
This dispute between Joe Gibbs Racing and Spire seems like it’s heading down that same dark path. It might look like a simple dispute over a non-compete clause, but it’s a reminder that behind the scenes, the racing can get a lot dirtier than anything we see on the track.
