Danica Patrick is “kinda pumped” for 2026, and her latest Instagram post gave fans a good look at why.
The former NASCAR driver posted a belated photo dump from her New Year’s celebration, and hidden among the photos is one of her planting a kiss on the cheek of an unidentified suitor. The man is standing with his arm around her and, for some added mystery, wearing New Year’s glasses that obscure his eyes.
“Not so new, new year’s pics. 📸,” Patrick, 43, captioned the Sunday, January 11 post. “Kinda pumped for 2026.”
Patrick donned a cowboy hat in several of the other photos, posing with friends and in front of the holiday decorations. In the final image, she’s playing Jenga with a friend and a man who could possibly be her boyfriend.
This isn’t the first time Patrick has shown off the mysterious paramour on social media. The two posed together in a pre-holiday photo dump via Instagram on December 17. In that picture, Patrick is leaning her head on his 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 am a little more ready for Christmas. 😜🎄,” she wrote in the caption.
Courtesy of Danica Patrick/Instagram
Patrick has kept her dating life shrouded in mystery since her split with businessman Carter Comstock, whom 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 host Haley Dillon that she was “single right now.”
She previously dated NASCAR driver Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and current Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback 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 escape.” “I was patient and found a little slice of heaven,” Patrick, 43, wrote via Instagram on Wednesday, August 20, alongside a carousel […]
In November, just weeks before her new man first appeared on her Instagram feed, Patrick opened up about whether she has stayed friends with any of her exes.
“I am personally of the camp that if I’ve been with you in 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’m probably never gonna speak 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 just like, whatever it takes. … I see the good in them,” Patrick said. “I can sense their essence. I know who they are. I’m not dating potential. But everybody sees someone’s potential, right?”
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She continued about one relationship in particular, “Everything seemed fine, or it seemed solvable. Or like, how about you tell me what the problem was, instead of just leaving and then telling me and being like, ‘We didn’t have a chance to solve this.’ You let it fail us, because you didn’t even say anything.”
Patrick also said that when that relationship ended, she was able to “figure things out” about where it all went wrong.
“I’m like, ‘Oh, wow. How did I not see that?’” she said. “Like, it was within days after, I was like, ‘Oh, my God. He was a narcissist.’ Like, check every box. He was a fearful avoidant.”
