Hendrick Motorsports didn’t have intentions of going against Joe Gibbs Racing in their ongoing legal tussle with Spire Motorsports. However, Rick Hendrick and his team had no choice but to make their position clear: they will protect their organization’s interests. Even if it means getting involved in this legal conflict directly or indirectly.
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JGR is suing Spire Motorsports to protect its confidential trade secrets and proprietary information, which they argue their former competition director, Chris Gabehart, stole from them before heading to Spire. But this core aspect of JGR’s fight against Spire has allowed Hendrick Motorsports to enter this lawsuit. They filed a motion in court arguing against JGR’s discovery process.
“Hendrick Motorsports has only sought leave to appear and protect Hendrick’s interest in connection with Joe Gibbs’ Racing’s second motion to compel for leave to depose to the extent that it seeks any documents beyond those sought in its original motion for leave to compel the production of technical documents (ECF No. 119) that reveal or derived from Hendrick Motorsports’ 42 years of proprietary trade secrets, highly confidential technical information,” the statement by HMS was shared on X by Matt Weaver.
JGR’s discovery request included Spire’s communication with HMS, documents containing items like HMS’ engines, ECU data, fuel strategy, fuel analysis, pit road data, and flow rate data. An important thing to note here is that Spire is under a non-disclosure agreement with Hendrick Motorsports, which prevents them from sharing this confidential information. And if you flip the parties involved for a moment, you’d understand why HMS took this step.
Just like Spire, 23XI Racing is a satellite team for JGR, and a leak or sharing of JGR’s confidential data sets or information would lead to bigger problems. So HMS isn’t coming to aid Spire in their legal tussle against JGR; they are simply securing their interest to the best of their ability.
“Again, Hendrick Motorsports doesn’t want to be involved in this lawsuit, but it cannot sit idly by while Joe Gibbs Racing seeks (whether directly or indirectly) the exact types of information that Joe Gibbs Racing claims are its most confidential and proprietary trade secrets. For those reasons, and those stated in the filings in opposition to previously submitted by defendants Christopher Gabehart and Spire Motorsports LLC, Hendrick Motorsports believes Joe Gibbs Racing’s Motion to Compel and for Leave to Depose (ECF No. 171) should be denied in its entirety,” the statement from the filing read.
Now there is a possibility that JGR’s request might go through, which would lead Spire to produce HMS’s confidential information. In that case, HMS would seek a preventive order. The lawsuit was filed by JGR in February, claiming Gabehart has breached contract and ‘brazen scheme’ to steal proprietary information and take it to Spire. The legal tussle is in its discovery phase, and the trial is scheduled to begin on February 1.
Jeff Dickerson has publicly stated that they have no need for JGR information because they have Hendrick’s support, who provide them technical assistance. Meanwhile, Gabehart has been vocal about his stance, and even took a sarcastic dig at his former employee last week.
“Very happy for that young man and his accomplishments thus far. He is a heck of a talent at such a young age. Surely my former employer thinks I am at least allowed to say that?” Chris Gabehart’s comment on X appeared harmless at first, but the final sentence carried a sarcastic edge.
He was congratulating Tristian McKee, who became the youngest driver to ever score top-5 finishes in NASCAR’s national series history. McKee is signed with Spire under their driver development program, and Gabehart made the most of this and launched a dig at JGR in response to Jordan Bianchi’s tweet.
This lawsuit started with JGR accusing Chris Gabehart of stealing the team’s trade secret, and now Hendrick Motorsports is getting involved (directly or indirectly) in what is becoming another NASCARCourt special.