Danica Patrick is “kind of excited” for 2026, and his latest Instagram post gave fans a good idea why.
The former NASCAR driver posted a belated photo dump of her New Year’s Eve celebration, and hidden among the photos is one of her kissing an unidentified suitor on the cheek. The man is standing with his arm around her and, for added mystery, he is wearing New Year’s glasses covering his eyes.
“Not so new, New Years pics. 📸,” Patrick, 43, captioned the post on Sunday, Jan. 11. “A little pumped up for 2026.”
Patrick donned a cowboy hat in several of the other photos, posing with friends and in front of holiday decorations. In the final image, she plays Jenga with a friend and a man who could possibly be her boyfriend.
This is not the first time that Patrick has shown the mysterious lover on social media. the two put together in a pre-holiday photo dump via Instagram on Dec. 17. In this imagePatrick is resting his head on her shoulder as they sit together on a mock ski lift with his hand resting on her inner thigh.
“After 16,000,000 twinkling lights… I’m a little more ready for Christmas. 😜🎄,” she wrote in the caption.
Patrick has kept his dating life shrouded in mystery since his split with a businessman Carter Comstockwho she dated from 2021 to 2022. She was asked directly about her relationship status in a June 2025 appearance on the “Believe in the Good” podcast, telling the host Haley Dillon that she was”single right now.”
She previously dated the NASCAR driver Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and the current quarterback of the Pittsburgh Steelers Aaron Rodgers.
Danica Patrick has found a way to beat the Arizona heat. The former race car driver is moving to the mountains of Colorado after spending five years searching for the perfect “mountain getaway.” “I was patient and found a little piece of heaven,” Patrick, 43, wrote via Instagram on Wednesday, August 20, next to a carousel (…)
In November, just weeks before her new man appeared on her Instagram feed for the first time, Patrick said if he was staying. friendship with any of your exes.
“I’m personally of the camp that if I’ve been with you that way, like, I love you, I care about you, I don’t see you as a friend,” she explained during an episode of her “Pretty Intense” podcast with guest Trevor Hanson. “If it was a serious (relationship), I’d probably never talk to you again, you know?”
She also explained that sometimes she doesn’t know when to “let go” of relationships that have run their course.
“I’m one of those people that’s like, whatever it takes … I see the good in them,” Patrick said. “I can feel their essence. I know who they are. I’m not coming out with potential. But everyone sees potential in someone, right?”
He continued about one particular relationship: “Everything seemed fine, or it seemed solvable. Or like, how about you tell me what the problem was, instead of walking away and then telling me and saying, ‘We didn’t get a chance to work this out.’ You let us down, because you didn’t even say anything.”
Patrick also said that when that relationship ended, he was able to “figure things out” about where it all went wrong.
“I’m like, ‘Oh, wow. How did I not see that?'” he said. “Like, it was a few days later, I was like, ‘Oh, my God.’ He was a narcissist.” Like, ticks every box. He was a fearful avoider.”