FONTANA, Calif. -- It's the dichotomy that continues to haunt open-wheel racing: an afternoon of close, breathtaking action with a slam-bang finish. And nobody in the grandstands.

Sunday's debut of the Indy Racing League at California Speedway followed that all too familiar pattern of good racing and a bad turnout.

	Only 15,000 fans saw Sam Hornish Jr. edge Jaques Lazier by .0281-seconds in the Yamaha Indy 400.

Despite the fact Sam Hornish Jr. and Jacques Lazier staged a wheel-to-wheel joust at 217 mph in the final laps before Hornish pipped Lazier by a couple of feet at the checkered flag, no more than 15,000 people occupied the 91,000-seat grandstand.

After driving a marvelous race, Lazier told the assembled media he'd had a tough time finding enough tickets for his family and friends and the room erupted in laughter. He wasn't trying to be funny but that cracked us up because, obviously, there was no shortage at the box office.

Or Ticketmaster.

There were as many theories to the embarassing crowd as there were pit stops.

WEATHER: It was cool all weekend, but nonetheless clear.

TICKET PACKAGE: This race was added to the 2002 schedule last fall and not part of the season ticket package at California Speedway, which includes a NASCAR and Championship Auto Racing Teams weekend.

TIMING: This was the first of four major motorsports events during the next six weeks in Southern California. The AMA Superbikes are here in two weeks, followed by CART's Long Beach Grand Prix and NASCAR. Also, Yamaha, didn't come aboard as title sponsor until three weeks ago.

INFIELD: Because of two sports cars races on the card, the road course was in operation all weekend so only 300 of the 1,800 motorhome spaces were available.

THE OSCARS: Brian Barnhart, IRLs vice-president of operations, actually suggested that the crowd would be slim because of the Academy Awards on Sunday evening. Yeah, there's such an audience crossover between Moulin Rouge and Gasoline Alley.

Truth be known, it was a combination of untimely scheduling and the general malaise that shadows the IRL whenever it follows CART into a market.

Whether race fans are confused by the open-wheel war or simply pissed off by it remains up for debate. But the same cold shoulder has been shown to the IRL at former CART venues in Phoenix and Loudon, N.H. CART christened this fabulous motorsports palace in 1997 and has averaged between 75,000 and 80,000 for its 500-miler in the fall.

There weren't 75,000 fingers here Sunday afternoon.

But International Speedway Corporation, which owns this track and other IRL venues at Michigan, Phoenix, Homestead and Nazareth, has cast its lot with Tony George and his IRL series. Reportedly, George was against bringing his all-oval series to Los Angeles this year but France persisted. And this is part of the growing pains.

"I don't want to say we had improper time to promote this race but we were late," said Bill Miller, general manager of California Speedway. "We announced it in late September and then we were focused on the CART race in November so we didn't start planning our promotion until late November.

"From the standpoint of the drivers and sanctioning body, they were great promotional partners and we established a baseline to build from. But this was the only date available this year and we had to live with it."

The ticket prices were more than reasonable. It was $45 for general admission and $55 for the top reserved seats (compared to CART"s high-end of $105) and children under 12 were admitted free when accompanied by a paying adult.

"Four people could attend for less than $100 and we also have free parking so, yes, I'd say that's a bargain," continued Miller, who promoted CART's U.S. 500 at Michigan in 1996 in only five months and drew 110,000 people.

Asked if he considered giving away big bundles of tickets for this event like CART did in '96, Miller replied: "Yes, we could have but this is the best track for open-wheel racing in this country and we don't want to give away tickets. We want to build this event.

"We sold out the infield for both NASCAR and CART and I think we'll do the same thing with the IRL. But we're here for the long haul with the IRL and we don't want to be judged on one race. I want this partnership to be judged 3-5-7 years down the road.

"This race will be part of our package next year and we'll look at where it fits best in our schedule."

In the long run, there must be one series for open wheel to ever get back to where it was in 1995. A bad IRL crowd here is just as bad as a shoddy turnout for CART's finale last summer at Michigan.

The bitter and puzzling reality for open-wheel racing is that both CART and IRL races at California Speedway are 10 times better than any stock-car parade around this 2-mile oval. Sunday's show had more passing in two laps than the Winston Cup snoozer will have in three hours next month.

But there won't be an empty seat.