A rumor circulated on social media over the weekend that Talladega Superspeedway had banned fans from wearing any items that display the number “8” while at the facility for this weekend’s NASCAR events. The reason was due to the trademark dispute between Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson.
The initial rumor was started by The Daily Downfords, a parody X account: “BREAKING: Talladega Superspeedway has announced they will ban fans from wearing any items that display number “8” as a way to avoid any potential legal situations.”
Of course, this wasn’t true. Talladega was forced to shoot down the rumor after former driver Landon Cassill brought attention to it.
“Can’t believe i have to comment this but our marketing department has nothing to do with this…this is fake and was not sent from us,” the racetrack wrote.
On April 3, On3‘s Jonathan Howard reported that Jackson took legal action against the NASCAR Hall of Famer’s attempt to trademark a No. 8 font JR Motorsports used dating back to 2019. Earnhardt announced the following day that JRM would retire the font. JRM successfully secured the rights to the stylized No. 8 Earnhardt made famous driving for DEI in the 2000s and abandoned its quest to trademark the font challenged by Jackson.
Dale Earnhardt Jr, Lamar Jackson trademark dispute is resolved
Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kelly Earnhardt Miller were able to secure the trademark after Teresa Earnhardt let her trademark expire last summer. The trademark for the No. 8 font that Sammy Smith used in 2024 is what Jackson disputed. On the “Dale Jr. Download” podcast, Earnhardt explained how the dispute on the No. 8 is now a non-issue.
“We learned that the Budweiser No. 8 trademark is not going to be continued and renewed by Teresa,” Earnhardt said. “We were a bit surprised by that because she kept the one trademark. Haven’t talked to Teresa. Don’t know why that was her decision. But we saw an opportunity to pick up the number and see if we could get the trademark. Without the trademark, we can run the number. Anyone can; we can use the number, no problem.
Did we have a trademark for the current JR Motorsports number that we’ve been running since 2019? No. There was no trademark for that number. We filed for the Bud 8 trademark. Have successfully succeeded in that process. We also as a backup plan filed for the trademark on the JR Motorsports No. 8 that Josh Berry and all those guys have been running for the last couple years. That was sort of a Plan B. Because we assumed that this Bud 8 thing might get murky or might not even happen at all.”
