Joe Gibbs Racing on Friday night outlined to the Western District of North Carolina its legal reasons for believing an expedited fact discovery against Chris Gabehart and Spire Motorsports are necessary.
Typically, the discovery process begins after both parties participate in a Rule 26(f) conference, where all parties involved in litigation meet to discuss settlement options and negotiate the terms of which documents and communications are subject to the process.
In layman’s terms, to be granted expedited discovery, a party must show ‘good cause’ or ‘reasonableness’ in the interest of justice and the potential for immediate harm in the absence of the process taking place.
Basically, Joe Gibbs Racing says it has reasons to believe Gabehart may have shared the competitive proprietary information he stored on his devices to Spire Motorsports as part of transition between the two employers.
Joe Gibbs Racing knows Gabehart told co-workers as early as October about a meeting with Spire co-owner Dan Towriss. It believes the job offer came as early as November 13 after the 2025 season ended. A forensic review of Gabehart’s devices also observed the deletion of the following files between November 23 and 25:
- “Qual eLap.pdf”;
- “)Chris Gabehart has shared a file with you”;
- “Race eLap Cold.pdf”;
- “25Las2 Post-Race Analytics.pdf”;
- “Structure_251125_141909.docx”; and
- “387A0190.tmp
From the Joe Gibbs Racing filing, in italics, below:
“That relevant materials, some of which evidence Gabehart’s taking of JGR’s Confidential Information and Trade Secrets, have been deleted from the Known Google Drive provides JGR a separate factual predicate to obtain early discovery from Defendants.”
Specifically, and a lot of this was detailed in early morning Monday filings above, this is what Joe Gibbs Racing wants access to:
- All Communications between Defendant Spire and Defendant Gabehart Relating to Gabehart’s potential employment at Spire.
- All Documents and Communications Relating to any potential or actual agreement by Defendant Spire or its owners to indemnify Defendant Gabehart for any breach of his JGR employment agreement or for any other claim that could be asserted by JGR against Defendant Gabehart, including for using, retaining, transferring, or copying any of JGR’s Confidential Information and Trade Secrets.
- All Communications from Defendant Gabehart and any other JGR employees Relating to employment at Defendant Spire.
- All Communications between Defendant Spire, Defendant Gabehart, Dan Towriss, and/or Jeff Dickerson Relating to JGR’s race setups, strategy, operations, sponsorships, or employees
- All Communications between Defendant Spire, Defendant Gabehart, Dan Towriss, and/or Jeff Dickerson Relating to the recruitment, hiring, potential employment and employment of Defendant Gabehart.
- All Documents and Communications Relating to Defendant Gabehart’s role as Chief Motorsports Officer at Defendant Spire
In the Friday night filing, Joe Gibbs Racing argues that Spire and Gabehart’s attorneys were unable to ‘answer basic questions’ about how the defendants interacted prior to the parting of ways or when Gabehart even started working for his new employers.
Also, from the JGR filing, in italics:
“The inability to explain these items was further confused by the declaration of Defendant Spire’s Head of People Operations, who later stated that Defendant Gabehart’s first day of work for Spire was February 16, 2026, yet his compensation began on February 9, 2026. The requested communications are directly relevant to Defendants’ conduct, intentions, and state of mind the Court asked about and should receive answers to before determining the nature and scope of a preliminary injunction. However, should the Court rule on the preliminary injunction prior to ruling on the Motion, JGR’s proposed early discovery is still warranted under the present circumstances.”
Gabehart is currently under a narrow restraining order to not work at Spire in any capacity similar to his role at Joe Gibbs Racing as competition director but in the injunction motion, JGR wants Gabehart to sit out the remainder of his contract, 18 more months.
Gibbs said expedited discovery is necessary to determine if files could harm JGR’s business and competition made their way into Spire’s possession based on the files Gabehart deleted from his Known Personal Google Drive.
“The titles of these files indicate at least some contained electronically stored information containing JGR’s Confidential Information and Trade Secrets. Early discovery is especially appropriate when electronically stored information was deleted before litigation commenced.
“Other files with seemingly obscure names saved in the Spire Folder within the Known Google Drive were also deleted. At present, JGR and the Court only know: (1) the files were saved in the same location Gabehart saved the other materials he stole from JGR; (2) they were deleted along with files containing JGR’s Confidential Information and Trade Secrets; and (3) other files stored in the same location with JGR’s Confidential Information and Trade Secrets were not deleted. Given their deletion, JGR and the Court may never know if those files contained JGR’s Confidential Information and Trade Secrets. They may also never know if those files contained JGR’s Confidential Information and Trade Secrets that Gabehart has not admitted to taking from JGR—exposing JGR to additional and unknown competitive injury.
While Gabehart has acknowledged he took JGR’s Confidential Information and Trade Secrets, he denies that he used them, intended to use them or has used them despite accessing them routinely after he ceased performing services for JGR.2 This assertion is hard, if not impossible, to square—particularly given Defendants’ inability to explain, in response to the Court’s inquiries on those topics, when Gabehart started working for Spire and the nature of his interactions with Spire during the period after he left JGR and began formally working for Spire. The early discovery JGR seeks will cast light on those unknown facts.”
For their part, Spire and Gabehart have testified and show documentation that shows a nondisclosure agreement between them that disallows the sharing of any confidential information from Joe Gibbs Racing.
The two sides will meet in court on March 16 to argue this topic in front of Judge Susan C. Rodriguez.
3 6 2026 JGR Reasons for Expedited Discovery by mattweavermedia
