Kurt Busch’s Ex Testifies NASCAR Driver Choked Her, In Tearful Courtroom Breakdown

The ex-girlfriend of NASCAR driver Kurt Busch took the stand in a Delaware courtroom Tuesday and testified under oath that the 36-year-old former Nextel Series Cup champion violently assaulted her — and that she needs a protective order from the court to keep the star driver away from her.

At one point she broke down in tears on the stand in Delaware’s Kent County Family Court, becoming so emotional that the judge mercifully called a recess in the proceedings.

“It scared me because he just snapped,” Driscoll said on the stand before suddenly bursting into sobs as she testified that Busch choked her and smashed her head against a wall after a race at the Dover International Speedway in September.

Driscoll, also 36 years old, has said that Busch was in a bad mood because he performed poorly in the NASCAR qualifying race.

In earlier court documents Driscoll said that Busch also verbally abused her and told her that if he had a gun, he would kill himself.

Busch has denied Driscoll’s charges and his lawyer, Rusty Hardin, called Driscoll’s allegations “a complete fabrication by a woman who has refused to accept the end of a relationship.”

Driscoll is asking the court to grant an order barring Kurt Busch from contacting her in any way. She also wants Busch to be subject to a court-ordered psychiatric evaluation, as well as an assessment by domestic violence experts.

Busch’s lawyers have also questioned why Driscoll waited for six weeks after the alleged assault to file a complaint against the driver for domestic assault. But the ex-girlfriend’s attorneys said that she waited in order to protect her son, Houston.

Driscoll was in a custody dispute with her former husband over the boy and was worried that the domestic violence case could affect the custody battle, if she did not resolve the custody case before going public with her allegations against Busch.

Her lawyer, Mark Dycio, said that he advised her to hold off before filing the complaint against Kurt Busch. The boy was likely to become part of the domestic assault case because Busch spent large amounts of time with the child, the attorney said.

“The father was concerned young Houston was being referred to in the paper by Mr. Busch as his stepson, his surrogate son, as Kurt Jr. Any allegations involving Mr. Busch would have had a material effect on that custody case,” Dycio said.

Kurt Busch also fears that the ex has “spies everywhere” watching him, according to court documents in the case. Driscoll continued to testify later on Tuesday.