NASCAR championship leader Denny Hamlin has returned the favor in the battle of digs that Carson Hocevar ignited after securing pole position for the Brickyard 400. The Spire Motorsports driver said he was happy to get pole by following their own notes from the last two years. 

That comment was a dig at Joe Gibbs Racing’s lawsuit against Chris Gabehart and Spire Motorsports. JGR alleged that Gabehart stole confidential JGR data around setups, race strategy, and even sponsorship details, transferred it to Spire, and hence, their newfound surge in performance in 2026.

On Tuesday's episode of his "Actions Detrimental" podcast, Hamlin was asked by co-host TJ Majors about who the highest-ranked Chevrolet driver has been this season (evidently Hocevar, fifth in the standings).

"Joe Gibbs Racing," replied the JGR driver, with a sly smile.

Explaining the dig out loud in just four words, he added on the podcast, "It's our satellite team."

A Satellite team in motorsport refers to an independent team that is closely related to a larger, better-funded team, known as the factory team. Hamlin's dig was a reference to Spire operating better with the allegedly stolen data from JGR.

Apart from the swipe, Hamlin also noted a unique observation. He said, "It’s interesting, everywhere that I had good runs last year, it seems like their cars got a lot of speed."

The heat from Hamlin comes after Gabehart was fired from his role as Competitions Director at JGR and joined Spire as their Chief Motorsports Officer. Beyond the accusations of data theft, JGR also accused Gabehart of violating his non-compete clause by operating in a similar role for Spire. 

JGR even went to court to complain about Gabehart’s non-compliance, having seen him trackside, providing his services to Spire. These accusations come after the court made it clear that Gabehart was restricted from performing roles similar to that of his competitions director role at JGR.

A deeper dive into Chris Gabehart’s ongoing JGR saga

Chris Gabehart joined Joe Gibbs Racing back in 2016 as a crew chief for its NASCAR Xfinity program. In 2019, he was promoted to the role of Denny Hamlin’s crew chief in the Cup series.

Hamlin won 22 races between 2019 and 2024 with Gabehart as his crew chief and even won the Daytona 500 twice. In 2025, Gabehart took over as the competition director for JGR before the relationship broke in November.

Gabehart put in his notice to leave JGR on November 6, but JGR accused him of taking pictures of confidential data on his personal phone and supplying it to his new bosses. Gabehart returned his work phone and laptop and was removed from his role in four days. 

The ongoing lawsuit got underway in February of this year with JGR claiming that Gabehart has violated his non-compete clause; Gabehart claimed that JGR breached the contract first by not paying him his salary. 

As things stand after multiple injunctions, the lawsuit is set to go under a nine-day federal jury trial beginning on February 1, 2027.

What are your thoughts on Hamlin’s comments on Spire? Let us know.

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Written by

Debrup Chaudhuri

Edited by

Yash Kotak