Dale Earnhardt Jr. remains one of the most popular figures in NASCAR today, and the two-time Daytona 500 winner can’t go anywhere without fans wanting an autograph or a picture. He won the Most Popular Driver award every year between 2002 and his final season in 2017, and was elected to the NASCAR Hall of Fame in 2021.
On his weekly podcast, the Dale Jr. Download, he revealed a bit of the backstory behind his iconic signature, which has appeared on countless pieces of merchandise throughout his career. But why doesn’t he include his famous last name in autographs, or even put it on the name rail of his race cars?
“I don’t sign the name ‘Earnhardt’ because it’s hard to write and I’m terrible at writing it and I don’t think it looks very good. So I shortened it to Dale Jr.,” he explained, but that’s not the only reason. “Going back to like the peak days of 2004, I was signing thousands of autographs at the racetrack a weekend. It was just quicker and easier for me to write Dale Jr.
“I don’t really remember all the details, but I was working with Teresa (Earnhardt, widow of Dale Sr. and Dale Jr’s step-mother) to establish the rights to my name. You know, there was a window where ‘Earnhardt’ legally was a little touchy and so we took it off the roof of the car. You know, it was in the name rail of my car and I just went with Dale Jr.”
Using the same signature from over 25 years ago
Earnhardt also revealed that he still uses the same signature from around 1998, even though his actual autograph has evolved over the years. Why not change it? The simple answer is because of trademarks.
“And if you look at the name rail, the Jr. — the R in Jr. just kind of is an R, right? And at some point many years ago, I took that R and I drew a line through the name. I went to Kelley (Earnhardt Miller, Dale Jr.’s sister and CEO of JR Motorsports) one day and I said, I want to change the name rail to what my signature looks like today. Because the name rail is my signature from 1998, just roughly back then. And she’s like, ‘it’s trademarked. We’re not changing the name rail.’
“And everywhere you see my signature on any merchandise, it uses that original trademarked signature from 25+ years ago. Whereas today, I don’t sign it that way. I have a little different style.”
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