Teresa Earnhardt challenging Kerry Earnhardt’s use of last name
Teresa Earnhardt is appealing a court decision that denied her challenge of Kerry Earnhardt’s usage of the name “Earnhardt” in his “Earnhardt Collection” of homes.
Kerry Earnhardt is the older son of Dale Earnhardt and the half-brother of Dale Earnhardt Jr. Kerry was born to Dale and his first wife Latane, who changed her name when she remarried. Kerry Earnhardt, who drove in seven career Sprint Cup Series races, now has a “lifestyle brand” with his wife Rene.
“Rene and I have worked extremely hard to develop the Earnhardt Collection brand and make it uniquely ours,” Kerry Earnhardt said in a statement to ESPN.com “I chose to leave a successful career in racing and could not be happier with what we’ve been able to achieve in the five years we’ve been building our home lifestyle brand inspired by our love of the outdoors.”
Teresa Earnhardt, Dale’s third wife, married the seven-time Sprint Cup Series champion in 1982. She filed the appeal last week in a U.S. patent court after her initial motion against the trademark was rejected.
Kelley Earnhardt-Miller, Junior’s sister and the manager of JR Motorsports, had this to say about Teresa’s challenge of Kerry’s usage of the name. After spending much of his childhood with his mother, Kerry and Senior got back in touch when Kerry was a teenager.
Kelley also said that she never sees Teresa, who was formerly the head of Dale Earnhardt Inc. after Earnahrdt died in the 2001 Daytona 500. After DEI merged with Chip Ganassi to form Earnhardt Ganassi Racing, the team became Chip Ganassi Racing in 2014 and Ganassi said he had bought Teresa’s share of the team.
Teresa and Dale had a daughter, Taylor, who was born in 1988.
Per ESPN, Kelley testified that no one has confused the line of homes with Junior and Kerry has also said he has nothing to do with Teresa.
Kerry said he has no relationship with Teresa. He was fired from Dale Earnhardt Inc. in 2011 at around the time he began working with Schumacher Homes, he said in testimony.
“Just me and my wife trying to build a brand for our family and everything, and then for her to come and oppose it — I don’t think if you had a relationship that any family member would do that,” Kerry said in his testimony.
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Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
