Back to the old #8.
Dale Earnhardt Jr., of course, drove the now-iconic #8 Budweiser car early in his career when he first started driving for his dad’s Cup Series team, DEI. But longtime NASCAR fans know how the story ends: With the sport’s most popular driver, Dale Earnhardt Jr., leaving the team his father built after a bitter (and public) battle with his stepmother, Teresa Earnhardt, over ownership in the company, and the team folding just a few years later (after Teresa said they would just “make another Dale Jr.” if he left the team).
After Earnhardt’s death, Teresa controlled all things DEI, even after the race team folded after merging with Chip Ganassi Racing. And she still tightly polices the use of the intellectual property owned by the former race team, which now serves as basically a merchandise company.
The result was that after Junior left DEI, he was forced to defer to Teresa when it came to using the stylized #8 that he ran while at DEI – and she wasn’t giving it up. But things changed last year, when Teresa apparently decided to let the trademark for the DEI style #8 expire, allowing Junior to step in and register it for himself.
Since then, Junior has run the #8 car in a race for the CARS Tour, a late model short track series in which Dale Jr. is a co-owner. And he’s also released merch featuring his #8 car that many fans associate with the Hall of Fame driver.
Since 2019, Junior’s NASCAR Xfinity Series team JR Motorsports has also run the #8, though the style of number was different since he didn’t own the trademark to the DEI-style #8.
But Lamar Jackson apparently believes that Junior’s use of the #8 causes confusion with his own trademark – and might lead fans to think that Junior’s products are somehow affiliated with Jackson?
The Baltimore Ravens quarterback filed an opposition to Junior’s registration for the stylized #8 that he’s used in the NASCAR Xfinity Series for over half a decade, claiming that Jackson is “well-known by that number due to his notoriety and fame” and that Junior’s trademark “falsely suggests a connection with persons, living or dead, namely, Lamar Jackson, who is well known by the number 8.”
Jackson uses the #8 on his “Era 8” apparel brand, and somehow believes that people will get Junior’s merch confused with his own:
“Purchasers and prospective purchasers are likely to mistakenly believe that the products Applicant offers under the mark are related to the products and services provided by Opposer under the number 8 and his application and registration.”
Yeah, I see how people could get those two mixed up…
But Junior apparently isn’t interested in battling with Jackson over the number, and announced today that his JR Motorsports cars would now use the DEI style of the #8 logo, abandoning his trademark application for the old JR Motorsports styled #8 that was being challenged by Jackson:
“Through the USPTO, we successfully secured the rights to the stylized 8. Therefore, we will be moving away from the original JRM 8 we have used since 2019.
We are looking forward to the remainder of an already successful season.”
— Dale Earnhardt Jr. (@DaleJr) April 4, 2025
Of course Jackson could theoretically claim that ANY style of the #8 violates his trademark, but that seems like it would be a losing argument: It’s nearly impossible for a number to be so closely-linked to a single person that it becomes their trademark, and there’s no way Jackson would be given sole use of the #8.
It sounds like he’s trying though: In 2024, he also filed an opposition against legendary quarterback Troy Aikman’s application to register EIGHT as a trademark after Aikman unveiled his new EIGHT beer.
But this will hopefully put an end to the legal battle between Jackson and Earnhardt Jr., and allow everybody to walk away happy. Honestly, it’s a better resolution anyway: Junior gets to bring back the DEI #8 that so many fans still love and recognize, and Lamar Jackson gets to continue to think that he’s well-known for the #8.
