JGR wants deleted texts to be used as key evidence in Spire, Gabehart trial

Joe Gibbs Racing continues to push the Western District of North Carolina to hold Chris Gabehart legally responsible for deleting text messages that could have been integral to the intellectual property theft and contract breach lawsuit that also includes Spire Motorsports as a defendant.

Gabehart deleted a seven-message text thread with Spire co-owner Jeff Dickerson on November 15. Despite efforts to recover the messages, there is no concrete proof of what was contained in those messages

Dickerson had his text messages set to a 30-day auto delete at the time.

Specifically, JGR is asking the court to allow the trial jury in February to consider an ‘adverse inference’ argument -- meaning the judge can tell those sitting in the box they could assume that texts were deleted to hide evidence potentially damming to the defendants.

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Gabehart said in previous filing that he deleted these texts out of ‘panic’ because they contained the framework of a job offer that saw him eventually join Spire as Chief Motorsports Officer but before he had finalized a separation agreement with JGR.

Gibbs has argued within the legal process that Gabehart should have reasonably expected legal action even before he deleted those texts because he had already misappropriated proprietary information and synced them to his personal devices.

While Gabehart has admitted to the misappropriation, he has said numerous times that the files were deleted and otherwise returned to JGR, and that he had no reasonable expectation to be sued.

This is where Joe Gibbs Racing spent much of its legal argument in a filing on Friday. Its legal team stated Gabehart had already claimed the legal rights of a one-week non-compete and a $100,000 separation payout on November 6 could not expect a legal inquiry of some kind a week later.

The text below in italics is directly taken from the filing.

“A litigant who builds his counterclaims on the contractual rights he supposedly asserted on November 6 cannot pretend that, on November 15, he had no reason to anticipate a dispute over those very rights. The Dickerson texts related to his claim that Section 6 freed him to accept Spire’s offer. Cases he cites (Little and Puebla Palomo) are distinguishable because he had already raised discontent, broken trust, and contractual claims.”

Joe Gibbs Racing pointed to Gabehart admitting that he ‘should not have’ taken photographs of proprietary information on November 7. That he knew it was wrong was another reason JGR says Gabehart could have reasonably expected litigation.

After all, Gabehart was employed by JGR when the organization pursued legal remedies against former engineer Jeff Curtis, who left for Richard Childress Racing with competition notes widely used to have won consecutive Richmond races with Austin Dillon in 2024 and 2025.

“Gabehart had unique insight into his former employer’s response to an employee taking confidential information and trade secrets and immediately joining a new team. He therefore knew, or objectively should have known, that JGR would likely pursue specific legal action (i.e., the same action pursued against the prior employee) once it learned of his misconduct.

“First, Gabehart knew when he deleted the text messages that JGR had sued a different former employee within the past year for attempting to take JGR’s confidential information and trade secrets to a competitor. … Gabehart objectively knew or should have known JGR would resort to legal process because he had done the same thing and saw firsthand how JGR responded. Gabehart knew JGR would not release him from his noncompete and allow him to join another team immediately without a separation agreement that required him to return, and certify that he had returned, all of JGR’s property in his possession.”

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JGR has made several arguments in court that Gabehart had been considering Spire as a landing spot for at least weeks prior to his official notice to Coach Gibbs that they should separate.

In addition to the deleted texts, Gibbs notes that Gabehart also deleted a Notes file on his phone following the pre-litigation January 2026 forensic imaging titled ‘Matt,’ in reference to a meeting agenda with Spire competition director Matt McCall with about ‘[l]ow hanging fruit – Download information’ and ‘setup stuff and philosophies’; and a post-race audit document in the recycle bin on a Spire computer, things that Spire says shows a pattern and not an isolated panic.

“On December 16, 2025, the very next day after JGR’s December 15 letter including a preservation demand, Gabehart deleted the ‘Spire’ and ‘Spire offer’ notes while preserving seemingly personal notes like ‘Papaw Grocery’ and ‘Grandparents Stuff.’”

JGR also disagrees with Gabehart’s expert conclusion filings that the text messages did not contain files, just words, and therefore are proof that Gabehart and Dickerson did not discuss how Spire could use misappropriated information.

From the JGR filing, again.

“Each of these remains possible without Gabehart transmitting Dickerson a file in the deleted text. Again, the record that Gabehart took JGR’s confidential information and trade secrets and earmarked them for his use at Spire before he even received a job offer and then deleted the communications leading up to the job offer, is ample evidence those deleted communications would have been favorable to JGR.”

Lastly, Spire’s legal team has argued in court that allowing JGR to allow a jury to adversely infer that the deletions could have been for nefarious purposes would spoil them to a conclusion that the race team is therefore guilty.

JGR says this matter will come up in trial one way or the other.

“Gabehart deleting the texts with Dickerson, the timing of the deletion, and Gabehart’s explanations for deleting six weeks of messages in addition to the offer message are all admissible at trial. Spire will have to respond to them with or without an adverse inference instruction … and … JGR is not asking to prevent Spire from defending itself in this lawsuit.”

And Spire says these text messages are vital to the claims made against Gabehart.

“Gabehart has admitted to deleting the text messages, and they are unavailable from Dickerson. The texts leading up to and conveying the lucrative offer for Gabehart to join Spire are not peripheral communications between a defendant and the owner of a co-defendant. They are central to each of JGR’s claims, which all concern the facts and circumstances of Gabehart’s decision to place JGR’s 2025 setups in a folder titled ‘Spire’ on his personal accounts. They are the ‘unique and vital’ communications that JGR is prejudiced by not having available in this litigation. … The communications here would have significantly improved JGR’s ability to prove trade secret misappropriation.”

Similar to Spire, Gabehart has also argued to the court that allowing an adverse inference would risk the jury seeing him as guilty, and therefore it should not be allowed. Again, JGR disagrees.

“Lastly, Gabehart’s arguments that he would be ‘branded a spoliator’ before the trial begins ring hollow. Courts within the Fourth Circuit routinely decide motions requesting an adverse inference long before trial. The Court has sufficient evidence to conduct the analysis now based on Gabehart’s own intentional deletion of evidence.”

There will be a hearing on this matter and Judge Rodriguez will have to eventually rule on this and other pre-trial rules prior to February 1.

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