Following a two-hour hearing on Wednesday at the Charles R. Jonas Federal Building, Judge Susan C. Rodriguez issued rulings on the motions from Joe Gibbs Racing to dismiss countersuits from Spire Motorsports and Chris Gabehart.
As is typical in such litigation, a lawsuit is followed by a countersuit of some kind, and this was no different with the defendants making a variety of counterclaims on their own.
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Joe Gibbs Racing sued Gabehart, who worked at the organization from 2012 to 2025 as an engineer, crew chief and competition director, for the misappropriation of trade secrets for the benefits of his new employer, Spire.
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In response, Spire sued JGR over an ‘oral agreement,’ ‘de facto agreement’ and ‘unjust enrichment’ over an implied deal that saw Spire release championship-winning car chief Robert ‘Cheddar’ Smith from his contract so he could leave for Gibbs’ No. 54 team, driven by Ty Gibbs, the grandson of team owner Joe Gibbs.
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In exchange, Spire claim Gibbs agreed to release an equivalent competition level employee to join Spire or pay $100,000 for Smith’s services. Smith was released and joined JGR but Spire never received a commensurate employee or payment.
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Gabehart also sued Joe Gibbs Racing under the claims that his longtime employer actually breached its contract with him, and not vice versa, withholding wages and the finality of their agreement in the efforts to prevent him from working elsewhere.
Gabehart also filed a lawsuit alleging that Joe Gibbs Racing’s attorneys at the Parker Poe firm broke attorney-client privilege while conducting a digital forensic analysis of the competition director’s company issued devices after his departure.
JGR had hired a private investigator to follow Gabehart and was under the conviction that he was preparing to leave for Spire while in possession of propriety business and competition data.
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Much of that is to be determined during the remaining fact discovery phase, summary judgement and a trial that is scheduled for February 1.
What Happened Today?
On Wednesday, Judge Rodriguez effectively denied Joe Gibbs Racing’s motion to dismiss the countersuit from Spire Motorsports regarding Cheddar Smith.
This doesn’t mean that the judge was ruling on the merits of the legal arguments, but rather that there is plausible claims for relief if the allegations were true, and that the matter can proceed forward.
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In other words, the counterclaims cannot be reasonably or legally superfluous, and these were not.
“On the merits, we’re not there yet,” Rodriguez told all parties while reading her decisions.
JGR attorney Sarah Hutchins argued that any agreement between the two teams was nebulous since the two parties never crafted a contract. She also argued that there was nothing tangible to indicate that JGR had substantially benefitted from hiring Smith.
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Spire attorney Joshua D. Davey responded that the No. 54 team has won twice this season and sits third in the standings after Ty Gibbs missed the Cup Series playoffs last year. That happened after Spire allowed Smith, the 2014 championship-winning car chief, out of his no-compete contract.
“I’m puzzled by the argument that there was no benefit to JGR,” said Davey. “JGR needed a car chief. They got one.”
Judge Rodriguez did not seem moved by the JGR argument either.
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“This whole lawsuit is about non-competes and (how) they’re valuable, right?” Rodriguez said. “They’re not waived lightly.”
Regarding the countersuit from Gabehart, Judge Rodriguez granted in part and denied in part Joe Gibbs Racing’s motions to dismiss. She is allowing Gabehart’s countersuit on breach of contract, a breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing and the North Carolina Wage and Hour Act to continue forward.
Joe Gibbs Racing stopped paying Gabehart’s wages in November before it issued ‘a for cause’ termination letter in February after he signed with Spire. Gabehart is arguing in court that the 18-month non-compete agreement was overly broad and not enforceable
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That’s to be decided later.
On the other hand, Rodriguez granted the motion to dismiss on Gabehart’s claims that JGR violated the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, North Carolina’s Computer Trespass Act and unfair and deceptive trade practices law.
“I’m just not sure you’ve got anything plausible here,” Rodriguez told Davis during the hearing.
This was said during an argument in which Davis stated that JGR exceeded its authority to inspect Gabehart’s accounts and computer. Davis was adamant that the legal standard was recognizing that certain communications were privileged and not opening them.
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The devices were owned by Joe Gibbs Racing and provided to Gabehart for his use as an employee. In other words, for Davis to argue that JGR’s attorneys didn’t have the authority to access their own devices didn’t make a lot of legal sense to the judge.
“If I were to adopt this, I would be making a new law here,” she said. “You’ve got the wrong judge for that.”
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