Dale Earnhardt Jr. and his Xfinity Series team JR Motorsports’ attempts to trademark the #8 were recently contested by Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson on account of the same clashing with his apparel brand ‘Era 8’. With the news breaking out on social media last week, several opinions flew online regarding how justified Jackson’s contention of the trademark was, coupled with an inherent confusion.
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JR Motorsports filed trademark applications for two stylized versions of the #8 a year ago. One of these applications was the famed Budweiser #8 logo that Junior himself ran during his formative years in the Cup Series, driving for his father’s team, Dale Earnhardt Inc., at the time.
The other #8 logo was the one used by JR Motorsports for one of their Xfinity Series entries, with a completely different font from that of the Budweiser #8. This was the logo being contested by Jackson as JRM went ahead with the trademark process.
The latest development in the matter comes from Junior as he and his team decided to abandon the current trademark application and use the Budweiser #8, a logo which they already own the rights to.
— Dale Earnhardt Jr. (@DaleJr) April 4, 2025
This was the confusion amongst the fanbase online, with several from the fraternity not realizing there were two #8 applications by the team, with only the simpler, non-historic #8 being challenged by Jackson. Junior gave a timeline to better explain the scenario on a recent episode of his podcast.
He also gave reasons as to why he decided to abandon the application altogether. “We learned that the Budweiser #8 trademark is not going to be continued and renewed by Teresa (Earnhardt), and we were a bit surprised by that. We saw an opportunity to pick up the number and get the trademark.”
Teresa Earnhardt is Dale Jr.’s stepmother and his father, Dale Earnhardt’s widow. After Earnhardt Sr.’s death, it was Teresa who inherited his team, Dale Earnhardt Inc. (DEI), and all its assets. The Budweiser #8 was one of the many assets she did not allow Junior to use for a long period of time.
Fast forward to last year, the now Xfinity Series team owner saw an opportunity to regain that famed Budweiser #8 trademark, while also filing another #8 application in case the proceedings went off track, as they have often had a tendency to do with Teresa.
“We filed for the Bud 8 trademark. We have succeeded in that process. We also, as a backup plan, filed for the trademark for the JR Motorsports #8 that Josh Berry and all those guys had been running for the last couple of years. We assumed that this Bud #8 thing might get murky or might not even happen at all.”
However, to Junior’s surprise, the application for the #8 Budweiser logo did come through, and JR Motorsports now owns the rights to the same, thus nullifying any use for the other #8 trademark. “When I learned about it (Lamar’s contention of the #8), I thought for sure it was about the Bud #8. When I dug into it, I found that it was the JRM font and we weren’t ever going to use that ever,” he revealed.
“The next day, we filed the paperwork to abandon the acquisition of that trademark for the JRM #8, and we got what we wanted, and we’re down the road. I was not going to argue with Lamar over something that I didn’t plan on using.” The complete saga boils down to a lot of effort over a whole lot of nothing.
Even Lamar Jackson’s contention of the trademark being filed by Dale Earnhardt Jr. was against his application, which somehow was blown up into him suing Junior online. “I wasn’t going to spend thousands of dollars with my lawyers to fight for something that I didn’t need,” joked Junior about the perceived gravity of the situation.
