ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — Chris Gabehart made his first public appearance as a Spire Motorsports employee on Saturday — at the IndyCar race in St. Petersburg.

The employee at the center of a federal lawsuit concerning his employment status sat inside the Andretti Autosport hospitality as lawyers work behind the scenes to come to a resolution with Joe Gibbs Racing before Monday afternoon.

“With all the momentum the sport currently has, coming off everything in the offseason, I think this is a very unfortunate spot for the sport to be in, in the public light,” Gabehart said. "This is something that could have been taken care of behind closed doors. I can respect the fact that we are working our way through it and will continue to do so as long as it takes.

“I feel bad for all the publicity that this has drawn away from the sport of NASCAR.”

Gabehart spent 13 years with JGR and in 2025 was the competition director for Gibbs' NASCAR team. A dispute over his new role late last year led to negotiations on his separation.

The talks became contentious and eventually broke down. Gabehart accepted a job with Spire as their chief motorsports officer and Gibbs is seeking a restraining order to stop the move. JGR is also suing Gabehart for allegedly taking proprietary information to Spire, which has also been named as a defendant in the case.

All parties were in court Friday and a federal judge ordered negotiations to continue or she will make a ruling on Monday regarding Gabehart’s ability to work for Spire.

Gabehart was permitted to work this weekend and went to the IndyCar race in Florida, where Spire parent company TWG Motorsports has three cars racing under the Andretti banner. Spire has two entries in the Truck Series race here.

A different role

Spire co-owner Jeff Dickerson in Florida clarified that Gabehart did not make a lateral move in leaving JGR, which is a point of contention in Gibbs trying to block the hiring. Dickerson said Gabehart was hired for a much larger role than the one he had at Gibbs and will be part of nearly all TWG properties.

“I think it’s insulting to say that it’s the same role, because it’s not the same role," Dickerson said. "We have a significant investment in Chris and we’re giving him the autonomy to do what he needs to do, not just to help the NASCAR program. We have all these other businesses that need a lot of help, too. That’s why we brought him in.”

JGR was founded by Gibbs in 1992 after he won three Super Bowls as Washington’s football coach. Gibbs is a member of both the Pro Football Hall of Fame and NASCAR Hall of Fame and now co-owns JGR with his daughter-in-law, Heather. The team fields Cup cars for Christopher Bell, Chase Briscoe, Ty Gibbs and Denny Hamlin.

Gabehart joined JGR in 2012 as an engineer, worked his way to crew chief for Hamlin, and became competition director ahead of the 2025 season. He maintains JGR is suing him for “daring to leave” the NASCAR team when the situation surrounding Gibbs’ grandson became untenable at the organization.

He admitted to the court he did take photographs of JGR information on his phone but did not give them to Spire. Gabehart also admitted his new position at JGR began to unravel when he was pressured last season to crew chief Ty Gibbs despite having been promoted to competition director.

Not about Ty Gibbs

Gabehart said Saturday in St. Pete he felt badly for the narrative that has been created around Ty Gibbs because of the lawsuit.

“I understand the public narrative that has come along with the things that I’ve been forced to say in public,” Gabehart said. "But those have nothing to do with this. As a matter of fact, deep down, I believe Ty is a really good person who has been delt a really tough hand the last three years, him and his family, and I feel really bad about that.

“I share a ton of sympathy because of where I’ve been in trying to help, in a small way, to get through that and am thankful for all the family has done for me. But unfortunately the 54 car and everything that went on last year, starting early in October of '24 to where we are now, is an important part of my story," he continued. “This is not about Ty personally, this is not about the family personally. It’s more about understanding my story and why we got to where we got, because it is relevant and does matter to me.”

Ty Gibbs was successful in NASCAR’s second-level series, where he won 12 races and the 2022 championship. His father, Coy, was found dead in his hotel room the morning after Ty won the championship.

Both of Joe Gibbs' only children have died, as J.D. Gibbs passed away in 2019 of degenerative neurological disease. He was also 49 at the time of his death. Coy Gibbs succeeded his older brother as vice chairman of the family-run NASCAR organization.

Ty Gibbs moved to the Cup Series in 2023 and is winless in 125 starts. The 23-year-old finished a career-best 15th in the 2024 Cup standings.

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