From Heavy.com...wow!!
'Teresa and her stepson had another spat in 2006 when it was reported that Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s name was in fact owned by her.
That meant that in order for Dale Jr. to use his name in licensing and endorsement deals, he had to be granted permission by Teresa. ESPN pulled up records from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, which showed that as soon as Dale Sr. died in the 2001 crash, the rights to his son’s name were transferred to his estate, and Teresa was the executor of his estate. She transferred the rights to his name to his dad’s trust and then to herself.
In June 2006, Dale Jr. told NASCAR.com that he and Teresa agreed to terms on transferring the rights to his name back to him.
The feud between the two seemed to simmer down briefly after the three years of negotiations came to an end. But when the two got into the public contract dispute, Dale Jr. admitted that his relationship with Teresa had always been lackluster since he was a kid. He said the relationship with Teresa “ain’t a bed of roses,” adding that it “has always been a very black-and-white, very strict and in-your-face.”
“The relationship we have today is the same relationship we had when I was 6 years old when I moved into that house with Dad and her,” Earnhardt said in a January 2006 interview with the Orlando Sentinel. “It hasn’t gotten worse over the last couple of years or couple of months…the way I felt about her then is the way I feel about her now.”'
I can't imagine marrying a woman who treated my kid like garbage, especially when she was 6 years old. I'd guess Sr was probably just not around enough to realize what was going on.
I get the feeling that "that house" was a very sad place for Jr.