NASCAR Team Engineer Reportedly Stole Proprietary Information From Joe Gibbs Racing & Sold It To Rival Team

Got a new scandal brewing in NASCAR? It's been a drama-filled season for the NASCAR Cup Series, and that's not even counting the action on the track. For most of 2024, teams were locked into a contentious negotiation with NASCAR over the sport's charter agreement, which finally came to a head when 13 out of 15 teams agreed to accept NASCAR's offer and two decided to take the sanctioning body to court and file an antitrust lawsuit. There have also been a lot of changes with the teams, set in motion after Stewart-Haas Racing announced they were closing their doors at the end of the 2024 season. The loss of the team means that there have been a lot of moving parts, from SHR's three charters being scooped up by other teams to employees having to find new jobs. And meanwhile, silly season has been in full swing with drivers swapping rides and teams making surprising hires to fill their seats in 2025 and beyond. Oh yeah, and we're also in the middle of the Cup Series playoffs. So yeah, there's a lot going on. But it seems like there's another scandal that's about to rock the sport, after a report from the AP confirmed a team has made allegations that one of its employees turned over proprietary and confidential information to one of its rival teams. According to the report, NASCAR is aware of allegations that an engineer for Joe Gibbs Racing had been "exploring options with other teams," and accessed proprietary information about JGR's setups to sell to a rival team. JGR currently fields four cars, including the #11 for Denny Hamlin, the #20 for Christopher Bell, the #19 for Martin Truex Jr. and the #54 for Ty Gibbs. Hamlin and Bell are currently still in the playoffs competing for the 2024 Cup Series championship. One team reportedly paid cash for the stolen information, and though the specific team hasn't been identified, we do have one big clue: It's reportedly not a team with a car in the playoffs. That excludes the big teams like Hendrick Motorsports and Team Penske, as well as 23XI Racing, Trackhouse Racing, RFK Racing and Wood Brothers Racing. (It would also exclude Stewart-Haas, which is closing at the end of the year but will have one team running in 2025 for team owner Gene Haas). The teams this year that DIDN'T make the playoffs include Richard Childress Racing, Legacy Motor Club, Kaulig Racing, Front Row Motorsports, JTG Daugherty Racing, Spire Motorsports and Rick Ware Racing. Many online are already speculating that it was a fellow Toyota team that paid for the information, and of the teams that didn't make the playoffs, only Legacy Motor Club runs Toyotas. But so far, the team has yet to be identified and NASCAR says that no lawsuit or formal complaint has been filed. Until that's done, there's really nothing NASCAR can do - though teams invest big bucks into their proprietary information, so I have a feeling they're not going to just sit back and let rogue employees sell it to other teams. We'll see how this one turns out, but man there's been a lot of off-track drama in NASCAR this year.