Denny Hamlin Takes a Brutal Dig at Spire Motorsports Over Chris Gabehart Lawsuit

The beef between Joe Gibbs Racing and Spire Motorsports has been one of biggest point of discussion in the 2026 season. JGR filed a lawsuit accusing ex-employee Chris Gabehart, who is now chief motorsports officer at Spire, of stealing sensitive team information. The case is still in courts, with both team owners named and the TRD team needs provide evidence to back the allegations.

One person that was really frustrated with the drama was Denny Hamlin, as Gabehart was his crew chief for more than half a decade. Since then, he hasn’t missed an opportunity to call out Spire and he did exactly that recently, as he branded them as the JGR satellite team, responding to co-host Jared Allen’s question about the best Chevy team of 2026.

JA: Here’s a trivia question. Which Chevy team is highest in owners points?

DH: Joe Gibbs Racing. It’s our satellite team

Denny Hamlin responds to Jared Allen.

He backed his claim by highlighting the fact that the Spire drivers seem to be performing on a high level on the same tracks the No:11 team was running strong in the 2025 season. The veteran seems to be hinting at the fact that Jeff Dickerosn’s team is using the notes from Chris Gabehart, about the car set up that helped Denny Hamlin thrive.

It’s interesting everywhere that I had good runs last year. It seems like their car’s got a lot of speed, but I digress.

Denny Hamlin added via Actions Detrimental.

Then he highlighted how the Chevy team really struggled at tracks like Chicagoland. They were really poor, as even star driver Carson Hocevar couldn’t make a difference and Hamlin believes it is because they don’t have a JGR set up to taken “inspiration” from.

I don’t see [Hocevar] in the Top 20, so [Zane Smith] must have got Hocevar’s day too, but all the Spire cars were bad. No past setups, huh. I digress.

Denny Hamlin asserted.

Denny Hamlin slams Carson Hocevar over Corey Heim beef

The JGR veteran in the same podcast, also talked about the No:77 Spire driver and took a shot at him for showing the middle finger to Corey Heim, who won the Brickyard 400. Hamlin, who co-owns 23XI Racing team that won the race, called out the racer for trying to attract attention by doing stupid things when he had bad finishes.

I’m not talking about it…I think he’s playing chess, not checkers. I think he does dumb **** just to get people to talk about him when he finishes in 9th place…and he was just waving to his daddy on the way by…He owns him, he owns him.

Denny Hamlin said.

The comments from the veteran were similar to the dig Heim took, in response to the Hocevar on his post-race media interview. It would be interesting to see how everything is going to playout regarding the drama in the coming days, with the personal beef and lawsuit adding another layer to the controversy.

Also Read: Joey Logano Hails “Solid Racecar Driver” Corey Heim After Brickyard 400 Triumph