Every time someone notices that the Indy Racing League's on-track product is one of, if not the best, of the lot this 2002 season, CART fans rise up and object.

It can get nasty at times. After all, the IRL is an inferior product. Or is it?

In a recent town meeting, CART President Chris Pook cited this season's attendance figures as one reason why predictions of CART's demise are unfounded. He told those assembled that more than 1.33 million people have attended CART's first 10 races, compared to 700,000 (his figure) in the IRL.

"We drew a quarter of a million people at Monterrey (Mexico) and Long Beach and had record crowds at Motegi in Japan,'' Pook said. "But we've had to battle a perception and it's very hard to deal with perceptions.''

Pook is correct. Perceptions are hard to deal with. Just ask both sides of baseball's labor dispute -- the owners and players -- how the fan perception of a possible strike has affected their season.

With the IRL, the perception is changing.

Darrell Waltrip, two-time Winston Cup champ and television analyst, is a guy who has changed his mind. In a recent posting on his web site, Waltrip marveled at the IRL's racing.

"Folks, I love NASCAR. I love stock cars. Stock car drivers are my heroes," Waltrip wrote. "But I've got to tell you, I've watched several IRL races over the last year or so, and those guys and gal -- Sarah Fisher -- put on a whale of a show. Holy cow! My wife and two daughters -- Stevie, Sarah and Jessica -- couldn't even stay in the room with me. I said, 'Oh no! Oh, watch out!' They were almost wrecking. I couldn't believe how close together they ran in those open wheel cars."

You can make the argument that DW, ever the master of hype, was simply touting the IRL because it will race next at the Kentucky Speedway where he is a paid consultant. But facts don't lie.

In the course of the last eight races, eight different drivers have pulled into Victory Lane. Five were first-time winners and the average margin of victory for the entire season is a little over eight-tenths of a second.

More and more fans are noticing the IRL. These new fans are not coming from CART. Despite what might be said, the IRL's success or failure is not predicated upon siphoning CART fans away from that series. CART continues to hold an excellent position of popularity outside the United States and will likely increase that market share under Pook's guidance.

The IRL's biggest pool of potential fans exists here in the U.S. They are NASCAR fans -- from NASCAR's vast network of weekly-operated short tracks to Trucks, Busch and, yes, even Winston Cup.

Sunday's Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway hasn't even been run yet and already drivers are predicting minimal passing. Aero push -- the turbulence created by the big stock cars -- is the reason, they say. Drivers like Kyle Petty and Jeff Gordon say the air coming off another car makes their cars a handful when tucked nose to tail on flat ovals like Indy.

"It's not that you are going to crash," Petty said. "But it sure feels that way."

More and more fans are disturbed by the lack of passing this season in NASCAR. Just listen to the comments by David Poole of the Charlotte Observer recently published in the Indianapolis Star.

"It's not fair for the Indy Racing League to keep scheduling races at fast, high-banked tracks on the same weekend Winston Cup racing goes to Pocono. The first time NASCAR went to Pocono this year, the IRL put on a dazzling show at Texas. On Sunday, as the Cup guys were waiting out the rain in Pennsylvania, the IRL was at it again at Michigan," he wrote.

"The last 30 laps of Tomas Scheckter's victory in the Michigan race were spine-tingling. For a while, it looked as if Sarah Fisher might go to Victory Lane, a story that would have put a big dent in coverage of all other forms of motorsports in Monday's papers."

These comments come from a writer who makes his living off NASCAR's success. He has an intimate knowledge of its success and from the sounds of things sees a growing rival for the fans that make NASCAR the industry leader.

Perception always suffers one of two fates. Either it becomes a reality or it eventually is exposed as just perception and fades into obscurity. The distance for the IRL's perception becoming a reality shrinks by the day.