Up to Speed: Has Chris Gabehart Lawsuit Lit a Fire Under Ty Gibbs?

On Sunday (March 1), Ty Gibbs finished fourth at Circuit of the Americas for his first top five of the year.

Four days before that, documents showing why former Joe Gibbs Racing Competition Director and new Spire Motorsports Chief Motorsports Officer Chris Gabehart wanted to leave JGR were made public. This was part of the lawsuit of JGR vs. Gabehart/Spire over the alleged leaked information in his switching of jobs.

The declaration of Gabehart did not paint JGR’s No. 54 team in a very good light. He said he had “serious concerns” over the management of that team, as it was managed differently and wasn’t being held as accountable as with the other three JGR NASCAR Cup Series cars. Gabehart further said that the No. 54 car was “managed directly by Coach [Joe] Gibbs, and everyone in the organization knew it.” That car, of course, is driven by Joe Gibbs’ grandson, Ty.

Gabehart went on to say in the document that Joe Gibbs started pressuring him early in the 2025 season to take over as the crew chief of the No. 54. He repeatedly declined until he started helping Ty Gibbs’ team behind the scenes before finally taking over as crew chief on June 28 and serving in that role for nine races, until the regular season ended and Gibbs missed the playoffs.

Chris Gabehart Allowed To Continue Working for Spire

A judge has ruled that he cannot perform the duties he had with JGR.

During that nine-race stretch with Gabehart as his crew chief, Ty Gibbs scored two top fives, including a runner-up at the Chicago street race, and four top 10s, including three in a row. Gibbs ended the season with five top fives and 10 top 10s. At the start of that stretch, he was 23rd in points, and by the end of it, he was 16th before the playoff reset. Had the current Chase format been in practice last year, that would’ve been good enough for Gibbs to sneak into the playoffs the final week of the regular season.

So the pairing evidently worked well together, but there have been rumors since that Gabehart and Ty Gibbs didn’t exactly get along. Gabehart turned the crew chief duties back over to Tyler Allen for the remainder of the season, “against the strong desires of ownership.” But he said he made it clear he didn’t want to be the crew chief long term.

Finally, Gabehart said in the court document that the “differential treatment” given to the No. 54 team undermined his role as competition director. He gave the examples that key personnel decisions were made for that car without his “input or counsel.” He also said — and this was the biggest direct shot at Ty Gibbs — that “the No. 54 driver was not held to the same meeting attendance standards as others on the team.”

So Ty Gibbs was either perpetually late to team meetings or he routinely missed them, according to Gabehart. If either of those things is true, that is not a good look for Ty Gibbs in his efforts to be one of the best drivers in NASCAR. None of the aforementioned things said by Gabehart look good for JGR in terms of nepotism.

In Ty Gibbs’ defense though, he is only 23 years old. Many times, Dale Earnhardt Jr. has talked about how he didn’t put as much work in and was late for practice on occasion early in his Cup career, and he was 25 years old when he got to Cup. Granted, things are different from what they were 26 years ago, and with so much parity throughout the field, every bit of preparation by a driver these days means so much more than it did back then.

Regardless, one has to wonder if Gabehart’s comments about preferential treatment and not showing up to meetings lit a fire under Ty Gibbs this past week. He would never publicly say it did, but actions speak louder than words and he looked really good at COTA. Not only did he finish fourth, but he led five laps and won a stage, scoring the second-most points on the day. He is now in a three-way tie for 17th in points, the highest of the JGR drivers.

Stock Car Scoop: Tyler Reddick Goes 3 for 3 at COTA

The SCS crew breaks down all the weekend’s action from COTA and St. Petersburg.

The top five at COTA was not only Ty Gibbs’ first of 2026, but it was only his second since July at Dover Motor Speedway, where he finished fifth during Gabehart’s stint as his crew chief. The only other top five between those two was a third at Talladega Superspeedway in October. To his credit, there was a Bristol Motor Speedway race in that span where he led a career-high 201 laps, but he faded to 10th by the finish.

Maybe the strong COTA performance was just a coincidence, and Ty Gibbs didn’t read or take to heart Gabehart’s comments. Whether they fueled his performance or not, it was still a much-needed run for him that should help quiet down some of the No. 54 team criticisms for the time being.

Ty just needs to build on that and put forward a body of work similar in the coming months. If he has more races like Sunday, then his first Cup win truly is right around the corner. Heck, maybe Sunday at COTA was the start of a run that will carry him to battling for the championship. And then we can all wonder in the years to come whether his career turnaround was thanks in part to criticisms from his former competition director and crew chief Gabehart.

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