Joe Gibbs Racing says Chris Gabehart broke a restraining order at Bristol

Chris Gabehart went to the NASCAR race at Bristol Motor Speedway over the weekend and Joe Gibbs Racing is sure he broke a temporary restraining order while he was there.

Gabehart is currently in a lawsuit with Joe Gibbs Racing, which says that Gabehart broke the non-compete terms of their previous work agreement. JGR also says that while negotiating the job he eventually took with Spire Motorsports, Gabehart was involved in a "brazen scheme" to steal trade secrets.

Joe Gibbs Racing sued Gabehart for more than $8 million, and not long after that, they added Spire as a defendant.

Judge Susan C. Rodriguez issued a restraining order as part of the legal proceedings that have been going on for the past two months. This order allows Gabehart to keep working for Spire, but he can't do the same kinds of work for that company that he did as JGR competition director in 2025.

This was a short-term solution that let Gabehart keep working while the court worked toward a trial or settlement.

Since the "TRO" was issued, Gabehart has kept going to NASCAR Cup Series races. JGR has taken pictures of him several times as that team tries to prove that the court is being ignored.

This time, Joe Gibbs Racing put out two statements from Ty Gibbs's social media manager, David Biro, and competition director, Wally Brown. Biro sent in pictures of Gabehart in the infield at Bristol during Cup Series track sessions. In one picture, he is wearing a radio headset (without a microphone), and in another, he is standing next to Cup Series driver Carson Hocevar on the pit road.

The court order says that Gabehart can only work with Spire at the senior executive level and only as a competitor in divisions that Spire is involved in that are not the Cup or O'Reilly Series.

Brown said that Gabehart worked as a competition director for Spire at Bristol on Saturday and Sunday. The words from Brown's filings are in italics below.

"Executives who don't have a say in competition usually don't take part in Practice or Qualifying sessions." Usually, sponsors don't go to Practice and Qualifying, especially for this race.

He then explained why he thought each photo in the filing broke the court's TRO.In this picture from the Cup Series practice, Gabehart seems to be wearing two radios with earpieces, which I've seen NASCAR race teams give to their competition staff. Gabehart's use of these radios during this time strongly suggests that he is listening to them to get information about the competition.

"In my experience, only people who work for the competition and have a direct say in how a Cup team's performance on the track can get to the workstation. In the picture Gabehart is standing with his back to the camera and wearing a black shirt and jeans. He looks like he's looking at data screens. This position close by is consistent with someone giving input on competition decisions. His being there during Practice and the specific place he was at the workstation make me think that Gabehart was probably actively involved in Spire's competition operations for the NASCAR Cup race.

This picture was taken at the end of Qualifying and shows Gabehart standing very close to someone who looks like Carson Hocevar, who drives Spire's Number 77 Cup Series car. It looks like Gabehart is standing and looking at a screen in the picture. It looks like Hocevar, the Spire driver, is sitting at the workstation with glasses on. In my experience, when competition leaders and drivers talk directly after Qualifying, they usually talk about how the driver did during Qualifying and how the car handled. This kind of interaction, which happened right after Qualifying, makes me think that Gabehart was probably actively involved in Spire's competition operations and giving the team the kind of feedback and input that a Competition Director would give after Qualifying.

In its overall legal filing, which included the declarations, Joe Gibbs Racing says that the court needs to look into this because Gabehart could be using stolen trade secrets for Spire right now.

"This evidence is also relevant to the threat of ongoing misappropriation discussed in JGR's Reply, ECF No. 46 at 9–13. Gabehart's active role in Spire's race-day competition operations creates situations where JGR's trade secrets could be revealed or misused.

"Finally, the evidence supports JGR's claim that Gabehart's proven lack of credibility means that his behavior needs to be watched to make sure he follows the Court's order."