Joe Gibbs Racing's shop floor in Huntersville, N.C., in 2018. Photo: Dough4872 via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
At 5:35 p.m. on January 27, 2026, someone texting Joe Gibbs Racing competition director Wally Brown asked what car Chris Gabehart drives, then added, “I might take my dogs on a drive some nights.”
Twenty-three days later, JGR sued Gabehart and Spire Motorsports in federal court in Charlotte. On September 29, Spire put that text thread on the public docket as Exhibit L (Dkt. 266-13), attached to a declaration from Spire attorney Joshua Davey in support of its opposition to JGR’s motion to hold Gabehart and Spire in contempt.
The exhibit is a four-page “Short Message Report”: one conversation, 13 messages, all on January 27. Each page carries a Bates stamp beginning “Heather Gibbs,” which means it came from the document production made under the name of the JGR co-owner. The footer also reads “Highly Confidential – Outside Counsel Eyes Only.” Spire’s exhibit index lists it as “Filed Publicly.”
Who is in the thread
The report never prints Heather Gibbs’ name as a participant. The account that sends the car question is labeled “mom.” The other one is labeled “Wally Brown,” the name JGR’s leadership page lists next to “Competition Director.” Heather Gibbs is listed on the same page as co-owner. Phone numbers are redacted except for one conversation identifier.
JGR’s own contempt brief describes Walter Brown as the competition director who held that job both before and after Gabehart and worked directly with him starting in 2012. JGR cites Brown’s sworn declaration to establish what Gabehart did for the team in his final year.
What the 13 messages say
The thread opens at 12:52 p.m. with “mom” writing: “Meeting with Coach at 3 on Michael. This is important to be transparent and clear and speak up. Need to make a decision and just go with it.” Brown answers that he will be there. At 1:50 p.m. he asks whether “Berrier” will attend. The answer is yes. The exhibit does not identify Michael or Berrier, and Spire’s filing index doesn’t either.
In between come other topics. “mom” asks whether Brown has heard from “James” in London, and Brown replies that “they are at the same track today that Ty went to.” Ty Gibbs drives JGR’s No. 54 Toyota.
At 2:33 p.m., “mom” writes that she “talked to Brad Sweet on Saturday for a while about high limit charters.” Sweet co-owns the High Limit Racing sprint car series with Kyle Larson. In written answers dated August 7, which Spire filed as Exhibit U in the same batch, JGR admitted it “does not participate in any late model or sprint car racing series.”
The car question comes at 5:35 p.m. Brown had asked if she had time for a quick call. “Yes downloading with coach. In like 5-10 min,” she replies, followed in the same message by the question about what “Gabehardt” drives and the plan to take the dogs out some nights. At 5:37 p.m. Brown answers, “Ok. Lol. I need to find out.” Also at 5:37 p.m., he sends the last message in the report: “No one wants to throw Michael under.” Read receipts show both of Brown’s final messages were opened at 5:44 p.m.
Nothing in the 13 messages says whether Brown ever found out, or whether anyone drove anywhere.
What Spire hasn’t made public yet
Spire’s brief explaining why it filed the thread (Dkt. 264) is on the docket, but it hasn’t reached the free RECAP archive, and we have not read it. So the exhibit is public while Spire’s stated reason for it is not, at least not to anyone without a PACER account.
Two more documents from the same production went in under seal. Exhibit M (Bates Heather Gibbs_0000224) and Exhibit N (Heather Gibbs_0000131) were filed “Entirely Under Seal,” and Spire moved the same day to keep them that way (Dkt. 268). Responses to that motion are due October 13. Gabehart’s side has its own sealed set: on September 30, Magistrate Judge David Keesler ordered Gabehart’s lawyers to file two of his exhibits, N and O, “with minimal redactions” by October 5.
The contempt fight
The thread lands in the middle of JGR’s September 15 motion asking the court to find that Gabehart and Spire violated the March 2 temporary restraining order and the April 23 preliminary injunction. That injunction let Gabehart keep his Spire job but barred him from doing the same work he did at JGR in his final year there. In its redacted memorandum (Dkt. 219-1), JGR says Gabehart made technical recommendations on power and aerodynamics at an April 20 competition meeting after the Kansas race, solicited driver input on ride quality at a May 18 meeting, and on November 7, 2025, “days before his termination,” photographed JGR’s season-long “CC Audit.” We laid out the debrief evidence when JGR filed for contempt.
Spire’s exhibit batch also includes JGR’s own admissions. In the same August 7 answers, JGR admitted that the “Focus Plan” produced as GABEHART00092 is not a JGR trade secret, and that some of the documents it listed in response to Spire’s interrogatories are neither trade secrets nor confidential information. It denied a request to admit that Gabehart sent no JGR trade secrets or confidential information to anyone else at Spire. In July, JGR backed off its biggest claim after failing to prove it.
The docket has other loose ends. On September 24, Gabehart and Spire each asked the clerk to enter default against JGR on their counterclaims because JGR hadn’t answered them. JGR filed both answers that same day, along with a motion for leave to file them late.
Next dates
Keesler hears five pending discovery motions on October 1 at 9:30 a.m. in Courtroom 1A at 401 W. Trade St., and he has cleared Hendrick Motorsports’ lawyers to appear. U.S. District Judge Susan Rodriguez takes up JGR’s contempt motion and its renewed request for a preliminary injunction on October 13 at 10 a.m. in Courtroom 5B. Gabehart’s response to JGR’s separate sanctions motion against him is due October 14. All of it comes before the jury trial date the court set in July.
Is a text asking what car Gabehart drives fair evidence of how JGR treated its former competition director, or is Spire putting private family messages on the docket to pull attention away from the contempt motion?
Sources: Joe Gibbs Racing, LLC v. Gabehart, No. 3:26-cv-00133 (W.D.N.C.) docket; Dkt. 266-1, 266-13 and 266-22 (Spire exhibits, filed Sept. 29, 2026); Dkt. 219-1 (JGR contempt memorandum, filed Sept. 15, 2026); Dkt. 269 (order, Sept. 30, 2026); Joe Gibbs Racing executive leadership page; High Limit Racing.
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