“Two photos in particular illustrate the silliness of JGR’s spies taking pictures so my replacement, Mr. (Wally) Brown, can speak out under oath about what JGR’s lawyers want the Court to believe I was doing.”
Joe Gibbs Racing recently opened a lawsuit against their former Competition Director, Chris Gabehart. He’s been accused of stealing team information from JGR and taking that information to Spire Motorsports, who recently hired him.
Joe Gibbs Racing opens a lawsuit against former crew chief
That lawsuit is ongoing. Gabehart is currently under a court order not to perform duties similar to his former role as JGR competition director role.
Over the race weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway, Gabehart was photographed wearing a headset near Spire Motorsports.
JGR claims he, “may be engaging in the kind of activities I would expect from someone performing Competition Director-related duties.”
Spire Motorsports has claimed that Gabehart is not performing those duties. They have noted that Matt McCall is the Competition Director.
Legal Team Response
Gabehart’s legal team has issued the following statement:
“It is an improper attempt to introduce surveillance photos as evidence outside the briefing schedule. Unable to substantiate its claims, JGR has resorted to stalking Mr. Gabehart at racetracks, then rushing to this Court to spin routine behavior into suggested misconduct. The Court should give this filing no weight.”
“Mr. Gabehart’s role as Chief Motorsports Officer is fundamentally different in scope, seniority, and focus—a distinction the record already establishes. Mr. Gabehart’s presence on race day is entirely consistent with his role as CMO and commonplace for executive-level employees like him.”
Michael Gutilla was recently signed as the president of Legcay Motor Club. Gutilla was the former COO at JGR.
“The organizational charts submitted in this litigation confirm that Mr. Guttilla served in the role directly above Mr. Gabehart at JGR, meaning that Mr. Guttilla had at least equal, and likely greater, access to JGR’s confidential competitive information than Mr. Gabehart.”
“See ECF 38, Ex. B. JGR evidently did not view its confidential information as sensitive enough to prevent—or even protest — Mr. Guttilla’s mid-season move to a direct competitor, which undermines JGR’s claim that Mr. Gabehart poses some unique threat to JGR’s competitive interests.”
Chris Gabehart Responds
“My use of radio equipment and proximity to Spire personnel at Bristol was entirely routine,” Gabehart opened.
“Hundreds of individuals at NASCAR Cup Series events—including owners, executives, sponsor representatives, and administrative personnel—commonly wear radios when Cup cars are on track and stand in similar proximity to their teams. This is true for executives at JGR, including Coach Gibbs and Dave Alpern, among others, who based off my experience regularly use radio equipment at races.
“The radios allow team personnel to listen to the team radio traffic to monitor team performance. The driver, crew chief and spotter are the ones communicating over the radio on competition matters. I did not.”
“As the photographs indicate, I only wore earbuds with no microphone and therefore had no way to communicate via the radio, I could just listen to the radio traffic. Accordingly, I did not discuss any competition-related issues on the radio.
“As Chief Motorsports Officer, my presence near Spire’s race car drivers is a natural and expected part of my executive oversight responsibilities. I was not performing any services in a Competition Director-type role at Bristol.”
“Two photos in particular illustrate the silliness of JGR’s spies taking pictures so my replacement, Mr. (Wally) Brown, can speak out under oath about what JGR’s lawyers want the Court to believe I was doing.”
“I was looking up at the speedway’s Jumbotron watching television coverage of qualifying.”
“I was watching two monitors mounted on a cart: one showing the live TV broadcast of practice and the other showing the real-time ranking order of the teams and drivers in the practice session and their corresponding lap times. Again, despite Mr. Brown’s speculation under oath, I was not performing any services in a Competition Director-type role at Bristol.”
Chris Gabehart speaks out after NASCAR team opens lawsuit against him
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