ESPN Racing

MEXICO CITY -- With a pole in his first Busch Series race, Mexico's Jorge Goeters is likely to have several other NASCAR starts this year,

"We don't know yet. Maybe Phoenix or Texas or Homestead, someplace his sponsors ... have business in those areas," Brewco Motorsports president Todd Wilkerson said.

Goeters, a veteran of local Mexican stock car circuits, was brought into the field because his Mexican sponsors saw a chance to capitalize on the first-ever NASCAR race in Mexico.

They got good value. He won the pole, led for the first 24 laps Sunday and repeatedly climbed back from setbacks before an engine forced him out on the 66th lap.

"We tested at Virginia Raceway about a month ago and he was as fast as Boris Said and those guys," Wilkerson said.

Taking over the No. 66 Ford run by Greg Biffle and Aaron Fike, Goeters won the pole at the 2.518-mile Mexico City course, outpacing NASCAR regulars as well as nine fellow Mexicans familiar with the track.

"We kind of think he's the best driver in Mexico right now," he added.

Adrian Fernandez is "older and kind of at the Rusty Wallace stage and Jorge is just up and coming," Wilkerson added.

Goeters, 34, had called the pole position "the happiest day of my life" and said he'd long dreamed of racing in NASCAR."

Wilkerson said before the race that he hoped to run Goeters in some oval races. "He runs a little bit of oval down here, not a lot. A mile's the biggest track that they run. As quick as he adapted to these cars, I think he'll adapt to the ovals."

Goeters himself seemed confident: "Taking four curves to the left is the same as four to the left and four to the right," he said.

He's already got a NASCAR attitude.

Asked if he was worried about competing with some of the world's best stock car racers, he replied, "Why should I worry? Let them worry about me."

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NOT QUITE HISTORY: The unprecedented Busch Series race in Mexico City missed achieving one bit of history: Kim Crosby's failure to qualify kept it from being the first Busch Series race with three women drivers.

Mexico's Mara Reyes and Busch Series regular Shawna Robinson made the race, but only on owners' points. It was the first time Reyes had been in her Busch Series car after a career in less-powerful Mexican stockers.

Reyes was a little miffed when reporters asked how she'd done compared with the other women in the field. "I'm not here to compete against two other women," she said.

Robinson, too, downplayed the gender issue. "We're all racers and whoever makes it, makes it."

"I would just like to be competitive," she said.

"We've got a lot of people that want to help us and want to see us make it.... All I can do is drive my tail off and see what happens."

She had raced once before in Mexico in the late 1980s in a truck race exhibition for a Formula One event. "It weighed about 8,000 pounds," she said. "I know the last three laps -- my whole rear end, flames were flying out of it, black smoke, flames. It was interesting."

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GORDON'S STRUGGLES: Robby Gordon's engine troubles for the NASCAR season continued on Sunday -- and adding insult to injury, he saw a penalty drop him from the front to the back of the starting grid and is under NASCAR investigation for a scuffle.

A blown engine ended Gordon's day after 56 laps in the Telcel-Motorola 200 on Sunday.

He had qualified second for the race -- but had to drop back to the end of the pack at the start because an earlier blown engine in practice had forced him to make an engine switch officials found improper.

Gordon earlier had suffered engine troubles in both Nextel and Busch races this year.

Meanwhile, NASCAR officials said they were investigating Gordon's scuffle before the race with Brad Parrott, crew chief for Carl Edwards.

Edwards, by coincidence, also suffered a crash and later a blown engine in practice but managed to work the rules to avoid being knocked to the back of the grid.

NASCAR's news site said that according to witnesses, Parrott approached Gordon before driver introductions, said something to him and kneed him in the groin.

Gordon then grabbed Parrott by the neck but others separated the two.

"I don't know exactly what happened," Edwards said after the race. "When I came onto the scene, Robby was roughing my crew chief up just a little bit so I stopped Robby from doing that."

Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press

This story is from ESPN.com's automated news wire. Wire index