Chris Gabehart's once-proud NASCAR career will forever be marred by scandal

Gabehart's sudden departure from the team was surprising. But there was still no reason to believe it was anything more than a simple mutual decision for Gabehart and Joe Gibbs Racing to part ways, as was the explanation offered by Joe Gibbs in a Feb. 10 interview.

There is now litigation to go through, and while Gabehart is, of course, innocent until proven guilty, every headline containing his name for the foreseeable future will be about a lawsuit that has the potential to turn nasty. 

His alleged information-stealing scandal is far from the first cheating scandal in NASCAR history. Since the very first Cup race on June 19, 1949, drivers and teams have tried to skirt each and every rule put in place by the sanctioning body. 

In 2013, Michael Waltrip Racing, Clint Bowyer, Martin Truex Jr., Brian Vickers and Ty Norris were implicated in what would come to be known as "Spingate," a strategy that saw Bowyer intentionally spin out and Vickers suddenly pit in the closing laps of the 2013 regular season finale at Richmond in an effort to give Truex Jr. a better chance at making the Chase. 

That was seen as arguably the biggest scandal in NASCAR history at the time, but was surpassed at Martinsville in the fall of 2024, when both Chevrolet and Toyota abused team orders and manipulated the penultimate race of the season to try and get drivers into the Championship 4. 

Gabehart's alleged actions were not perpetrated against NASCAR, but a race team, and one that was employing him at that. At the very least, that will hurt him in the court of public opinion. 

Even if Gabehart does come out of the lawsuit smelling like a rose, it's hard to imagine a world in which a Cup Series team chooses to hire him. Gabehart is a brilliant mind when it comes to racing, but the alleged treachery against his former team will be the most glaring blemish on the resume of anyone in the garage. 

What was a question in the offseason of which lucky team would land Gabehart in a leadership role is now a question of how a lawsuit will turn out and if anyone will ever be able to trust Gabehart within the walls of a race shop ever again.