And finally… ‘I own Washington’

Kurt Busch, 36, said his former girlfriend Patricia Driscoll was a secret agent who had operated in South America and Africa.

However, Ms Driscoll,37, described his testimony as “ludicrous” and drawn from a film script she has been writing.

She alleges Mr Busch slammed her head against a wall at his motorhome at Dover International Speedway in Delaware – which he denies.

Mr Busch, 2004 NASCAR champion, said that Ms Driscoll went out into the woods one evening with camouflage and boots when the pair were at a hotel in El Paso, Texas.

He added she returned in a trench coat, underneath which she was wearing an evening gown splattered with blood and other matter.

He told the hearing: “Everyone on the outside can tell me I’m crazy, but I lived it on the inside.”

In addition, Mr Busch asserted Ms Driscoll had shown him photos of bodies with gunshot wounds and added that a female character in the film Zero Dark Thirty – which examines the hunt for Osama bin Laden, was based in part on her.

Ms Driscoll, who applied for the protective order last year, runs a surveillance system company.

She told the Associated Press: “I find it interesting that some of the outlandish claims come straight from a fictional movie script I’ve been working on for eight years.

A personal assistant to the couple, Michael Doncheff, said that Ms Driscoll told him she was a government assassin.

He quoted her as saying: “I take down foreign governments.

“I own Washington.”