Motorsport photo Matt Weaver · Motorsport Tue, November 10, 2026 at 3:15 AM UTC · 3 min read About Our Ads Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement While not entirely justifying the claims made against it, Joe Gibbs Racing has moved to satisfy one of the counterclaims brought against it by Spire Motorsports by issuing a payment in exchange for the services of car chief Cheddar Smith.
Spire countersued JGR on June 25 in part over a disagreement regarding how Smith ended up on the No. 54 car with driver Ty Gibbs in the first place.
In its claims, Spire said that it agreed to release Smith from his contract in April of 2025 in exchange for an equal level JGR employee or the payment of $100,000. In response to JGR filing a lawsuit against Spire and Chris Gabehart, Spire sued on allegations that it never facilitated its part of the agreement.
They have argued about the matter through filings and in court but JGR has moved to move this issue off the table by paying the amount and asking the court to eliminate the matter from the docket.
Spire and Chris Gabehart countersue Joe Gibbs Racing
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To wit, Joe Gibbs Racing says it has paid Spire and that it has been accepted.
"The Court need not resolve that dispute to dispose of Spire's counterclaims, because every one of them now fails for the same reason: there is nothing left to recover.
"On November 6, 2026, JGR paid Spire $100,000 plus legal interest accrued from the end of the 2025 season—the full measure of the only obligation Spire's own pleading describes, and more. By Spire's account, JGR held the express option to satisfy the alleged agreement with a $100,000 payment. JGR has now made that payment, with interest. Even though JGR disputes that the parties ever formed a trade agreement for the release of a JGR employee or payment to Spire of $100,000, JGR issues that payment to avoid any further dispute over the issue. Because JGR has provided Spire the complete relief its counterclaims seek, there is no longer a live case or controversy, and the counterclaims should be dismissed for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction."
JGR Chief Commercial Officer Eric Schaffer detailed the formal amount in a declaration.
"That amount consists of $100,000 plus legal interest of $8,087.67 on that sum from the end of the 2025 NASCAR season on November 2, 2025 through November 6, 2026 calculated at eight percent simple interest per annum for 369 days. ($100,000 x 8% x 369/365)."
Joe Gibbs Racing never denied that there was an open matter to be resolved with Spire regarding Smith throughout last summer. However, it says that Gabehart, then serving as JGR competition director, was in charge of facilitating that agreement with Spire Motorsports co-owner Jeff Dickerson.
Since then, JGR has sued Gabehart, who left for Spire, on claims that he misappropriated trade secrets upon his departure and took them to his new employer -- which both defendants deny.
While Gabehart did take files with him, including information that he photographed, and then stored on a personal server, he also maintains that everything was deleted or returned to JGR. He claims that nothing proprietary to JGR was taken to or used at Spire.
That matter is still being hotly contested in the legal process and a trial is scheduled to begin on February 1.
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Source: Sports
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