Dale Jr. Indebted to Teresa Earnhardt for Protecting His NASCAR Legacy Amid Revival of Iconic Budweiser Duo

July 7, 2001: One of the biggest days in Dale Earnhardt Jr’s career. After his father’s death at the Daytona 500 that year, Junior came back to the same track for the Pepsi 400 and won it. It was the first Cup race at Daytona after Earnhardt, Sr.’s death. For Junior, his father’s legacy meant a lot, but after his death, the ownership rights and the DEI went under the control of Teresa. The driver disliked the way she managed the team and eventually; he left to join Hendrick Motorsports.

Ever since then, fans have accused Teresa of foiling the Initiator’s legacy and withholding the iconic #8 from Dale Jr. However, the strained relationship between Jr. and Teresa seems to have improved over the years. His ownership rights on the #8 car number for the first time since 2007 is proof.

Junior had fond memories of driving the #8 from his DEI days early in his racing career. More importantly, his iconic partnership with Budweiser was the one that backed his rookie year in 1999 and stayed with the driver until 2007. The red-and-black Bud 8 car is arguably among the best paint schemes in NASCAR’s history. But this dream run came to an end as Teresa Earnhardt wouldn’t let go of the naming rights of the car.

She had all the power to keep the number away from Dale Jr., but this time around, something changed. The trademark on the #8 was set to expire in June and needed renewing, but Teresa chose not to claim the iconic number. This allowed Junior to make a move and claim one of his father’s racing legacies. But here’s the thing. There may have been a lot of tension between Junior and Teresa, but there is something he would like to thank her for.

“One of the things that I really appreciate about Teresa as long as she had this “8.” I was very happy that it was in a safe place. I knew that it was always gonna be fine. But if she doesn’t want to pay for the trademark anymore, I’m like, we better get that because I want it safe. And when we thought about doing something with it, we were all like, Well, Kelley, I don’t want to make merch. But if we raced a car, then I would feel comfortable with the merch.” Dale Earnhardt Jr. said this on Dale Jr. Download.

This move has now allowed him to roll back those memorable years and revive the iconic partnership between #8 and Budweiser. Dale Jr. will be driving the #8 Bud King of the Beers race car at Florence Motor Speedway on November 23, 2024, and this partnership will continue in 2025. After having called a brief pause on his NASCAR stint, this collaboration will be restricted to late-model stock car events.

Although this partnership ended back in 2007, Dale Jr. always had the hopes of working alongside his former sponsors once again. And now he will be reliving some of the fond memories of his early days in racing with the Budweiser scheme back on his race car.

Interesting Fact: Dale Earnhardt Jr. drove #8 for 291 starts, including 17 wins. Starting in 1999, he drove the Budweiser #8 in five Cup races and he finished in the top ten once.

Dale Jr. learned a lot from his partnership with Budweiser

The return of the #8 Bud car isn’t a vague plan; it is a strategic marketing communication that touches on nostalgia and the brand identity. When Dale Jr. and the beer giant were in discussion of bringing back the paint schemes, they were clear about what they were going to do with this opportunity.

Any other company or brand would have made tons of changes and added extra bits to the new scheme to make it appealing. But Budweiser and Jr. stuck to the basics.

Explaining the reasoning behind keeping the paint scheme as it is, Jr. stated, “I appreciate their insistence; they knew how to sell beer, right? They knew how and made sure they were easy to spot and easy to find. I learned a ton working for them and still feel strongly about a lot of those principles and try to infuse that into what we’re doing here at Junior Motorsports with our own race cars and stuff like that.”

Interesting Fact: Junior was only 23 years old in 1998 when he hit the jackpot with Budweiser’s sponsorship and got to carry their colors on his Winston Cup car. The deal started in 1999 and the total value of the package made it worth more than $10 million per year. It was Don Hawk, the then-president of Dale Earnhardt Inc., who had negotiated the deal.

The revival of this iconic partnership has got the NASCAR fans in celebratory mode. A lot of them are eager to get their hands on the merchandise featuring the #8 Bud car theme.