Still, No Place For Briggs

NFL camps are scheduled to open later this week and as of now, Lance Briggs may have nowhere to play.

The former Elk Grove star played 12 seasons with the Chicago Bears but the club decided not to re-sign him at the end of last season. Briggs has talked with the 49ers, however, nothing has happened there.

With Navorro Bowman healthy, San Francisco will move forward with Bowman and Michael Wilhoite as their starting inside linebackers, according to team sources. It was hoped Briggs might help there.

Larson Hoping To Break Sophomore Slump

Kyle Larson is looking for a breakthrough finish for the first time in 2015, though he had a great chance two Saturdays ago in Kentucky. Rain washed out qualifying for the July 11^th Quaker State 400, but Larson had the fastest lap time in practice and thus started on the pole.

Larson never led a lap but was near the top in the early going. Then a cut developed on a tire and that cost him some valuable time in the pits. 

He finished in 35^th place.

“It’s been really disappointing the way I’ve been running, and a lot of it has been tough luck, but there have been things that were my fault or the team’s fault,” Larson said of his Chip Ganassi Racing team under crew chief Chris Heroy. “We’ve just got to clean up our races and find some more speed in my race car and try and be better.”

In an interview with the Boston Herald last week, Larson admitted his sophomore season on NASCAR’s Sprint Cup series has been less than stellar. He’s had just one top-five finish and five in the top ten in 17 starts thus far.

“It’s been a really bad season so far,” said Larson, the Sunoco Rookie of the Year in 2014. “We’ve only got a few good finishes, where last year we had a lot of good finishes up to this point and a lot more top 10s and stuff like that.”

Larson was fastest in opening practice for the 5-Hour Energy 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway Friday. He turned a fast lap of 133.708 mph. In qualifying later that day he was 17^th.

 “I think every driver wants to make an impact in racing at any division they run on the way up,” Larson told the Boston Herald, “It’s been nice to accomplish what I have so far at a young age and being fairly new to stock car racing. I think I definitely learned a lot and gained experienced as I got on, and I learned to make better decisions and that kind of helped.”

In Sunday’s race, Larson finished in 31^st place. He’s now 21^st in the Sprint Cup standings, 317 points behind leader Kevin Harvick.

Levin Update

While the golf world was watching the Open Championship at St. Andrew’s Royal and Ancient in Scotland, local golfer Spencer Levin and the rest of the PGA Tour were competing in the Barbasol Championships in Opelika, Alabama.

Much the like week before at the John Deere Classic in Illinois, Levin had a strong opening two rounds.  Midway through the Barbasol, he was five-under-par and tied for 15^th place.
On Saturday, he mustered a one-under-par 70 for a three round score of six-under-par and was seven strokes behind the leaders.

Then Sunday he shot an even-par 71 to finish in a tie for 36^th place, 13 strokes behind runaway winner Scott Piercy. His performance moved him up five places in the FedEx Cup standings to 105^th place.