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CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A federal judge ruled Monday that former Joe Gibbs Racing competition director Chris Gabehart can continue to work for Spire Motorsports as long as it is not the same duties he performed with his old NASCAR team.
Gabehart is the chief motorsports officer at Spire, a job that encompasses most of parent company TWG Global's racing properties. He made his first public appearance as a Spire employee over the weekend at the IndyCar race in St. Petersburg, Florida.
The ruling Monday follows an order from Susan C. Rodriguez, a U.S. District Court Judge for the Western District of North Carolina, for both sides to attempt to come to a resolution following Friday's hearing on JGR's motion for a restraining order to prevent Gabehart from working for Spire.
She set a March 16 date for a full hearing on a preliminary hearing.
Rodriguez also ordered Gabehart to return all data and material he had from JGR to the team owned by Joe Gibbs, who founded the NASCAR organization 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.
Gibbs and his daughter-in-law were not in court Monday for the 10-minute proceeding. They did attend last Friday's hearing.
Gabehart can travel to this weekend's race at Phoenix Raceway, where both NASCAR and IndyCar are competing. TWG Motorsports also owns Andretti Global of IndyCar.
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