Gabehart’s sudden departure from the staff was shocking. However there was nonetheless no motive to consider it was something greater than a easy mutual resolution for Gabehart and Joe Gibbs Racing to half methods, as was the reason provided by Joe Gibbs in a Feb. 10 interview.
There may be now litigation to undergo, and whereas Gabehart is, after all, harmless till confirmed responsible, each headline containing his title for the foreseeable future might be a few lawsuit that has the potential to show nasty.
His alleged information-stealing scandal is way from the primary dishonest scandal in NASCAR historical past. For the reason that very first Cup race on June 19, 1949, drivers and groups have tried to skirt each rule put in place by the sanctioning physique.
In 2013, Michael Waltrip Racing, Clint Bowyer, Martin Truex Jr., Brian Vickers and Ty Norris had been implicated in what would come to be often known as “Spingate,” a technique that noticed Bowyer deliberately spin out and Vickers all of a sudden pit within the closing laps of the 2013 common season finale at Richmond in an effort to offer Truex Jr. a greater probability at making the Chase.
That was seen as arguably the most important scandal in NASCAR historical past on the time, however was surpassed at Martinsville within the fall of 2024, when each Chevrolet and Toyota abused staff orders and manipulated the penultimate race of the season to attempt to get drivers into the Championship 4.
Gabehart’s alleged actions weren’t perpetrated in opposition to NASCAR, however a race staff, and one which was using him at that. On the very least, that can damage him within the courtroom of public opinion.
Even when Gabehart does come out of the lawsuit smelling like a rose, it is exhausting to think about a world during which a Cup Collection staff chooses to rent him. Gabehart is a superb thoughts in terms of racing, however the alleged treachery in opposition to his former staff would be the most obtrusive blemish on the resume of anybody within the storage.
What was a query within the offseason of which fortunate staff would land Gabehart in a management position is now a query of how a lawsuit will prove and if anybody will ever be capable to belief Gabehart inside the partitions of a race store ever once more.
