The Associated Press

DOVER, Del. (AP) — Attorneys for NASCAR driver Kurt Busch asked a Delaware judge on Thursday to reopen a Family Court hearing that resulted in Busch’s ex-girlfriend Patricia Driscoll being granted a no-contact order.

In a motion filed late Thursday afternoon, Busch’s attorneys asked the judge to allow them to present testimony from three acquaintances of Driscoll who they say were previously reluctant to get involved.

Busch’s attorneys now say the acquaintances, including the widow and son of the late Florida congressman Bill Young, have come forward to contradict statements Driscoll made before and after the day she said Busch assaulted her in his motorhome at Dover International Speedway in September.

Busch’s attorneys said Beverly Young, Charles William “Billy” Young and Jonathan Helfman, an advertising executive who has worked with Busch and Driscoll, had agreed to provide information to law enforcement officials investigating Driscoll’s criminal complaint against Busch but were not willing until Wednesday to have their information used in the Family Court case.

“Contrary to the testimony provided during the hearing, these witnesses provide evidence about statements Ms. Driscoll made well before she contends she was assaulted, statements she made after Mr. Busch broke off their relationship, and statements she made after the alleged assault,” Busch’s attorneys wrote.

“…. Taken together, this evidence bares Ms. Driscoll’s motives to ruin and seek revenge on a person in whom she had invested so much and who no longer wanted to be involved with her.”

In addition to asking Family Court Commissioner David Jones to consider the statements, texts and emails provided by the three new witnesses, Busch’s attorneys also want Jones to delay issuing a written ruling, which was expected Friday.

Driscoll said the latest move by Busch’s attorneys was a last-ditch effort to try to smear her and to continue to try the case in the public instead of the courtroom.

Busch, meanwhile, is focused on this weekend’s Daytona 500 race in Florida.

“Ms. Driscoll’s frantic media onslaught of the last 48 hours at a time Mr. Busch is scheduled to drive in the most important NASCAR race of the year is further evidence that this is not about domestic violence, but instead about ruining the career and reputation of the man who left her,” Busch attorney Rusty Hardin said in a statement.

Driscoll’s attorney, Carolyn McNeice, said she had not received a copy of the motion but described it as “frivolous.” She said there is nothing that a new witness could present that would alter the findings of the court.

“Now that he has failed to convince the court that no abuse occurred, Mr. Busch wishes to have a ‘second bite at the apple,’” McNeice said in a statement. “Fortunately the court has strict rules against such abuses of court resources.”

Busch’s attorneys claim, among other things, that on the day after the alleged assault, Driscoll’s son told Beverly Young, whom Driscoll affectionately called “mom,” that Busch did not hit Driscoll. Young told a police detective that she saw bruising on Driscoll’s neck, but now says that is not the truth, the attorneys said.

Driscoll said Beverly Young was never alone with her son, and that no conversations Young had with him match what he told police or his therapists.