The judge in Joe Gibbs Racing’s lawsuit against its former Competition Director, Chris Gabehart, has dropped a ruling. JGR filed a restraining order on Gabehart demanding that he not be able to work for Spire Motorsports following the accusations that he stole proprietary information from the team. Essentially, their request was to limit Gabehart’s role at Spire Motorsports, making it impossible for him to use the information they accuse him of stealing against them.

On Monday afternoon, the judge granted a temporary restraining order. Ruling that Chris Gabehart can continue to work for Spire; however, he cannot perform any duties he was performing for JGR in the past as their Competition Director. On Monday, the judge ordered Gabehart to return any JGR proprietary data, information, or trade secrets he was in possession of. He cannot use, copy, or transfer any of said information.

Both Spire Motorsports and Gabehart claim that his position as Chief Motorsports Officer is different from that of a Competition Director, and that the judge’s decision has no impact on his role at Spire.

The judge also ordered JGR to post a $100,000 bond.

JGR made the statement, “We are pleased with today’s ruling by the United States District Court for the Western District of North Carolina for a temporary restraining order enforcing the terms of our contract with Chris Gabehart. We will continue the legal process to protect our information and fight for what is right for our race team, our employees, and our partners.”

The next hearing is scheduled for March 16th.

(We are not lawyers and therefore, if anything published his is not worded or published correctly, we are more than willing to fix it)

Image Credit: Patrick Vallely