Brian France had a hunch his new playoff system would turn Nascar's occasionally boring stretch run each season into a legitimate made-for-television fall drama.

The goal was to eliminate boring stretches, he said, and tap an election-time spirit he thinks has all but disappeared.

Where otherwise boring stretches are turned into colorful vistas, drivers slow down to appreciate.

That's a long boring stretch for a 12-year-old in the back seat keeping score.

Having to do all the flying, Wood was supplied with black coffee and cigarettes to keep awake on these long boring stretches.

Thus what he offered tonight came as no surprise, and for those not fully attuned to his method and his sensibility it had its boring stretches.

That leaves us facing a rather boring stretch of time, it seems to me.

A more boring stretch of land could hardly be devised; God must have put his mind to it, and only He knew why.

It also has long boring stretches.

Both were filled with repetition and long, boring stretches, yet both were at the same time interesting and disgusting.