Jeff Gordon Says Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s Daughter on the Way May Become a Racing Driver: 'It Wouldn't Surprise Me'

"We're happy for them and it's going to be a wonderful time," Jeff Gordon says of himself and wife Ingrid's joy over Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s baby news

Photo: Jamie McCarthy/Getty

NASCAR champion Jeff Gordon believes that Dale Earnhardt Jr.‘s first child may follow in her family’s speedy footsteps.

“His sister races, I think his niece has raced, so it wouldn’t surprise me,” he told PEOPLE exclusively during the Angel Ball 2017 at Cipriani Wall Street in New York City on Monday night.

Stock car racing champ Earnhardt, 43, and his wife Amy are due in May. Says Gordon, 46, “I actually got to see him the day after he announced it and I saw the excitement so that’s very cool.”

“We’re happy for them, and it’s going to be a wonderful time,” he adds of himself and wife Ingrid, who share two children of their own: son Leo Benjamin, 7, and daughter Ella Sofia, 10.

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Earnhardt, who is retiring from full-time Cup Series racing after the season finale Nov. 19, was married on New Year’s Eve — and Gordon touches on the numerous changes in the newlyweds’ lives.

“Being newly married and at this stage in his life, he has this whole second stage in his life that he has to look forward to now,” Gordon says. “Having a child now, that’s exciting, and I know he’s ready for it — both of them are.”

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Did Earnhardt and Amy have a schedule up their sleeves?

“I don’t know if he planned it this way,” says Gordon, “but to be able to step out of the driving side of it and retire from driving and then have a child, certainly you need all the time you can get taking care of children, so that will do that for him.”

Gordon’s wife doesn’t believe in dispensing advice, though. Ingrid encourages the parents-to-be to learn on the spot, saying, “You find out as you go!”