Joe Gibbs Racing wants the Western District of North Carolina Court to compel Chris Gabehart and Spire Motorsports to immediately produce any documents related to deleted text messages to each other but also a third-party subpoena to get those deleted communications from the cell phone service providers.
“The nature and significance of the irreparable harm JGR is experiencing cannot be overstated. Gabehart has repeatedly admitted to taking JGR’s trade secrets, and has admitted to deleting communications responsive to the narrow scope of discovery the Court permitted to determine if he used or disclosed those trade secrets. Once a trade secret is lost it is lost forever, and ‘the potential for the loss of trade secrets . . . demonstrates irreparable harm.’”
That is the current state of affairs in the JGR v Spire and Gabehart lawsuit, in which the plaintiffs believe they have reasons to suspect that proprietary information taken by its former competition director is being used by the defendants this season in the NASCAR Cup Series.
JGR is suing Gabehart, now the Chief Motorsports Officer at Spire, for over eight million dollars while also compelling Judge Susan C. Rodriguez to move the legal process in along in way to determine the scope of potential damages.
For example, there is no disputing that Gabehart continued to access proprietary JGR files even after having a conversation with team owner Joe Gibbs on November 6 that resulted in an understanding that it would ‘be best to part ways.’
The next day, Gabehart took at least 20 photographs of confidential team information. He accessed a 'Spire' folder on his Personal Google Drive, which was synced with his Gibbs provided computer on November 12, 14 and 15. Gabehart, through his attorney, has since apologized for doing so and conceded it was 'stupid' and that he's 'embarrassed' and 'regrets it.'
Meanwhile, Gabehart believes JGR breached their contract first by timely refusing to pay him bonuses earned but also agreed upon financial amounts during the separation period. Gibbs has argued in court ‘why would we continue to pay someone who is stealing from us’ with an allegation that Gabehart was having conversation with Spire leadership as early as October.
Spire maintains it never asked Gabehart for trade secrets nor does it want it due to its technical alliance with Hendrick Motorsports. Spire has produced contracts and declarations that Gabehart signed nondisclosure agreements with the team upon his formal addition to the group.
Nevertheless, the court ordered expedited discovery, albeit limited in scope, relative to the issue of job communications between Gabehart and Spire co-owners Jeff Dickerson and Dan Towriss.
During that process, Gabehart disclosed he had deleted text messages with Dickerson prior to November 15, under the conviction that the matter would never be litigated in court. Dickerson disclosed he has perpetually used an auto-delete function for his text messages, including conversations with Gabehart, and that feature was not turned off until February 26.
What text message Gabehart did produce shows Dickerson sending a draft of a lawsuit response that hadn’t been filed yet, plausibly indicating that Spire leadership anticipated legal action even before the autodelete feature was deactivated.
Joe Gibbs Racing also claims that it called Dickerson on December 3 to warn them of tortious interference and that they had 90 days to cure or address Gabehart’s concerns. Gabehart says that was voided upon a lack of payment. JGR says the paychecks stopped when Gabehart ceased providing services to them and when he may have potentially began providing services to Spire.
For example, Gabehart was already allegedly making Spire focus plans on official Spire letterheads by November 25.
Anyway, Joe Gibbs Racing is asking the court to allow for additional expedited discovery beyond what it already received because it wants to know as soon as possible if its information is being used by other teams this season. Judge Rodriguez, in her words, has been reluctant to grant a fishing expedition in the absence of proof right now that JGR trade secrets are being used by Spire.
So JGR is asking the following of the court:
1. Third-party subpoena to Dickerson requesting production of all: (a) communications with Gabehart about employment or potential employment with Spire; (b) all documents referring to or referencing Gabehart’s employment or potential employment with Spire; (c) all documents or communications referring to or relating to JGR’s Confidential Information and Trade Secrets; and (d) all documents and data relating to activation and deactivation of autodelete features;
2. Requests for production of documents on Spire requesting production of all: (a) Dickerson’s communications with Gabehart about employment or potential employment with Spire; (b) all communications and documents referring to or referencing Gabehart’s employment or potential employment with Spire; (c) all communications with Gabehart referring to or relating to JGR’s Confidential Information and Trade Secrets; (d) all documents relating to document retention policies and activation and deactivation of autodelete features; and (e) all data indicating when the autodelete feature(s) were activated on Dickerson’s Devices;
3. Third-party subpoenas to Gabehart’s and Dickerson’s telephone providers requesting production of records reflecting Gabehart’s and Dickerson’s text messages and phone calls for the time period of October 1, 2025 through March 13, 2026;
4. Third-party subpoenas to Joe Custer, Justin Marks, Todd Meredith, Rick Ware, a Tommy Baldwin for communications with Dickerson referencing or relating to JGR’s Confidential Information and Trade Secrets; and
5. Court ordered forensic review of Dickerson’s cell phone(s), tablet(s) and computer(s) (collectively, “Devices”) to determine: (a) if text messages responsive to JGR’s Requests for Production of Documents to Gabehart are recoverable from those devices; and (b) when the autodelete function(s) on any of Dickerson’s Devices were activated.
This is the second time that Joe Gibbs Racing has motioned the court for subpoenas against Custer, Marks, Meredith, Ware and Baldwin and the judge asked for evidence that this was anything more than a fishing expedition.
The only provided reason JGR offers this time is that these Chevrolet affiliated principles are the most reasonable individuals Dickerson would have communicated with over any trade secrets acquired from JGR.
“Through bad acts, negligence, or a combination of both, communications relevant to this dispute have been deleted. JGR should be permitted to serve these narrow and limited subpoenas to only a few recipients to ensure other relevant communications are not deleted by individuals not involved in this litigation, which is now the most efficient way to ensure highly relevant communications are preserved.”
Mostly, what this filing wants addressed, comes down to the deleted text messages for reasons Joe Gibbs Racing made below.
“So then, why would messages be proactively deleted? Gabehart has not provided any justification or account of his decision to delete text messages with Dickerson on November 15, 2025 and Dickerson’s purported automatic deletion practice, at a minimum, calls into question his retention of relevant material at a time when he should have taken measures to secure it. Thus, the complete unavailability of messages between two critical actors in this dispute prior to November 15, 2025 begs the immediate question of ‘why?’ The most plausible inference is that the texts were deleted to conceal misconduct. Given Gabehart’s admitted theft of JGR’s Confidential Information and Trade Secrets three days earlier, and the fact that he was communicating with the person for whose benefit Gabehart stole the information, the most plausible inference is that the misconduct was related to this stolen information.”
The complete filing can be read in its entirety below.
Joe Gibbs Racing second motion for expedited discovery by mattweavermedia
