Everything About Ella Sofia Gordon, the Daughter of NASCAR Legend Jeff Gordon

Although Jeff Gordon’s name carries its own weight in NASCAR lore with four Cup Series titles to his name, it was his daughter who took the spotlight recently as she rang in her 18th birthday. Born on June 20, 2007, Ella Sofia Gordon is the daughter of Gordon and Ingrid Vandebosch.

Despite being slated to travel to Northern California later that week (back in 2007) for full participation in on-track activities at Infineon Raceway, Gordon marked the milestone with evident pride.

Ella made her NASCAR Cup Series debut in 2010 at just three years old, not behind the wheel but as the creative mind behind a special paint scheme for the No. 24 DuPont Chevrolet.

Titled “My Papa’s Car,” the scheme featured the revamped logo of the Jeff Gordon Children’s Foundation. With finishing touches from NASCAR’s first licensed artist, Sam Bass, Ella’s early contribution turned heads at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

That was only the beginning. In 2014, she logged her first laps in a quarter midget kart at New Hampshire Motor Speedway during a Hendrick Motorsports testing session with Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kasey Kahne. Although she showed no signs of fear, her father could barely watch.

“It terrified me,” Gordon said. “From a parent’s standpoint, it’s kind of tough to watch them go around there and not have any control of what’s going on and know that it’s all on them now. It’s amazing the focus they can have at such a young age, to go on and do that, but at the same time, you know all the things that can go wrong, and that’s kind of scary.”

While Ella occasionally enjoyed time behind the wheel, she never felt the pull of stock car racing the way her father did. Still, her competitive fire burned bright. By 2023, Gordon acknowledged that her need for speed had found a new outlet: track, field, and running.

Her athletic range didn’t end at sprinting. She took to field hockey and dabbled in everything from high jump to pole vault, proving her mettle across disciplines.

Gordon’s son, Leo Benjamin Gordon, born August 9, 2010, in New York, followed a similar early path. At seven, Leo took his first spins in a quarter midget, with Gordon proudly sharing a video of those initial laps in 2017 on his website. “He had a lot of fun!” he wrote. But just like his sister, Leo had other plans. Racing didn’t hold his gaze for long, as Gordon revealed his son had set his sights on the entertainment world instead.