Spire Motorsports is having a moment right now. Their driver Carson Hocevar is sitting sixth in the standings, and despite not having the “most popular driver” title has made it to the iconic Met steps. Now for context, any representation NASCAR ever saw there was sixteen years back when Jeff Gordan made it. But while their rise looks like a classic underdog story it hasn’t been taken all that well everywhere or by everyone. Just ask Joe Gibbs!

For months Gibbs and Chris Gabehart have been locked in a legal battle. According to the former, Gabehart took with him years of crucial data and shared it to Spire when he joined them in 2026. They allege forensic discovered a digital trail and also selective deletion of texts between Gabehart and Spire’s co-owner Jeff Dickerson. So, this sudden rise of a Spire driver is no coincidence. They even pushed for the case to be resolved quickly requesting a trial date as early as November 2026. But things are not moving in their favor.

As reported by Kelly Crandall on her social media, “Judge Susan Rodriguez has ordered that the trial in Chris Gabehart/Spire Motorsports vs. Joe Gibbs Racing will be held in January 2027.” Both parties argued for their proposed dates yesterday in the telephonic hearing (Gibbs wanted Nov. and Spire/Gabehart wanted May 2027).”

While Joe Gibbs Racing didn’t get the desired date, even Spire Motorsports didn’t. They wanted the date to be pushed to May 2027, saying that a major trial at this moment during the season would be a nightmare for the team. But the judge ultimately found a middle ground, which means this legal fight will go for the entire season. Now this alone is not a nightmare to Spire but also to JGR, because the former is surely getting too close to comfort.

Spire has been doing phenomenally well. Daniel Suarez, a new driver with them this season, is in 14th in the standings. Not just his performance but his confidence has surged and you can see it in his media interviews. Plus for Spire this is huge, because none of the Spire drivers even finished in the top 20 of the standings earlier. However all these were not breaking point for Joe Gibbs Racing, Talladega was.

This is when Hocevar ended up picking the biggest win of his career. In fact, this was Spire’s first NASCAR win since 2019. That moment for them turned their suspicion to conviction. In their latest filing, they then tried to turn around in their own favor.

“On April 27, 2026, Jeff Dickerson posted a document to his X account that purports to be an unfiled declaration, similar to those Spire has filed in this litigation. In the unfiled declaration, he appears to joke about the allegations in this lawsuit and brags about Spire’s first NASCAR Cup Series win since 2019 and second win ever.

“This sudden improvement in Spire’s Cup Series performance, of course, comes on the heels of Gabehart misappropriating JGR’s confidential information and trade secrets and providing Spire the same or similar services he provided JGR in the last year.”

Of course, Spire Motorsports didn’t hold back at all.

Spire fires back against Joe Gibbs Racing allegations

Just last week, Jeff Dickerson sparked a conversation at the Jeff Gluckcast podcast where he strongly pushed the narrative that Spire’s recent performance surge is solely because of the alleged data transfer.

“They filed something after the win, and essentially, it was linking it back to Chris [Gabehart],” Dickerson said. “And I’ll tell you what upsets me is that not only is Chris not in that role, but they’re minimizing what happens here. They’re minimizing the 175 people here. Like, we couldn’t win without them, right? And I don’t even just mean without Chris, they’re implying we can’t win without JGR data.” His comments, of course, went viral and added another layer of tension to this legal battle.

For now, Chris Gabehart remains at the center of the storm, officially overseeing Spire’s operations under the “bespoke” title of Chief Motorsports Officer. While the court issued a ‘cease and desist’ against specific files, the legal battle has now spilled over from the front office to the racetrack.

, in particular, has been furious with Spire Motorsports’ owner, Jeff Dickerson. In a particularly emotional post on his social media, Hamlin publicly accused Spire Motorsports of ‘stealing’ information when they were trying to explain their situation.

, Hamlin said, “Yeah, okay, buddy. You hired someone who stole tens of millions worth of information, lied about communications y’all had after you deleted them, and now is getting paid double to work on your truck program?” The judges have ruled that Spire Motorsports has no such involvement with Chris Gabehart sharing the sensitive JGR information. Regardless, JGR does not seem to be backing down on their claims.