A round up of the latest Motorsports tweets posted at http://twitter.com/thspeedblog

 February 11th

• [NHRA] Winternationals Pro Stock Cars – Jason Line (6.567s/211.63mph) beats Mike Edwards (6.575s/210.01mph)
• [NHRA] Winternationals Nitro Funny Cars – Ron Capps (4.154s/296.96mph) beats Jim Head (no time)
•  [NHRA] Winternationals Nitro Top Fuel – Doug Kalitta (3.822s/308.57mph) beats Antron Brown (3.847s/307.16mph)

February 12th

• [NASCAR] Jeff Gordon (#24) wins first Gatorade Duel qualifying race for Daytona 500
• [NASCAR] Kyle Busch (#18) wins second Gatorade Duel qualifying race for Daytona 500

February 13th

• [WRC] Sebastian Loeb (Citroen) leads Rally Norway, 2 mins 6 secs ahead of Mikko Hirvonen (Ford), at the end of Day 1.

February 14th

• [WRC] Seabastian Loeb leads Rally Norway by 25s at end of Day Two.

February 15th

• [WRC] Sebastian Loeb (Citroen) wins Rally Norway
• [NASCAR] Tony Stewart wins Nationwide race @ Daytona.
• [NASCAR] Matt Kenseth (#17) declared winner of rain shortened Daytona 500.

In the last month seven more drivers qualified to be included in the overall SPEED BLOG RANKINGS which rate drivers from NASCAR, Formula One, IndyCar, NHRA Drag Racing and World Rally against each other’s relative performances.

World Rally ace Mikko Hirvonen stays on the top again this month, while for the first time this year a NASCAR driver, Kyle Busch, breaks into the Top 10.

The Top 10 at the end of July are:

1. Mikko Hirvonen (Rally)
2. Sebastian Loeb (Rally)
3. Scott Dixon (IndyCar)
4. Helio Castroneves (IndyCar)
5. Tony Schumacher (NHRA)
6. Lewis Hamilton (F1)
7. Feliepe Massa (F1)
8. Kimi Raikkonnen (F1)
9. Robert Kubica (F1)
10. Kyle Busch (NASCAR)

At the half-way point of the season 135 different drivers from Formula One, Indycar, NASCAR, NHRA drag racing, and the World Rally Championship have qualified to be included in The Speed Blog driver rankings.

World Rally driver Mikko Hirvonen maintains the top spot for another month, but the gap to second placed Indycar racer Scott Dixon is closing fast.

Here’s the Top 10 standings at the end of June.

1. Mikko Hirvonen (WRC)
2. Scott Dixon (IRL)
3. Sebastian Loeb (WRC)
4. Helio Castroneves (IRL)
5. Robert Kubica (F1)
6. Fellipe Massa (F1)
7. Dan Wheldon (IRL)
8. Kimi Raikkonen (F1)
9. Tony Schumacher (NHRA)
10. Chris Atkinson (WRC)

Kyle Busch is the top ranked NASCAR driver at #13 on the list.

NHRA.com reports that Funny Car driver Scott Kalitta, 46, died June 21 from multiple injuries suffered after his car went out of control and crashed in a high-speed racing accident at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park during the fourth and final round of qualifying at the Lucas Oil NHRA SuperNationals. Kalitta was extracted from his car by NHRA emergency services officials and transported to Old Bridge Township Hospital, where he was later pronounced dead. Kalitta, a two-time NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series Top Fuel champion and one of only 14 drivers in NHRA history to earn victories in both premier nitro categories, earned 18 victories during his career, his last coming in Chicago in 2005 in Top Fuel.

Kalitta earned most of his racing success in Top Fuel, where he claimed back-to-back world championship titles in 1994 and 1995. He retired from racing in 1997, sitting out most of two seasons before returning for a 10-race campaign in 1999. He sat out three more seasons following that brief stint and then returned again in 2003, joining cousin Doug as a second driver for the family’s two Top Fuel dragsters.

Kalitta started his pro career in Top Fuel in 1982, running limited events for four seasons before moving to Funny Car in 1986 for his first full season of competition. He returned to that category full time in 2006. He posted a runner-up finish two weeks ago in Chicago, his 36th career NHRA final-round appearance.

Kalitta is survived by his father, legendary NHRA racer and team owner Connie Kalitta; wife, Kathy; and sons, Corey, 14, and Colin, 8.

Once again we’ll be posting our own cross-series drivers rankings as the season progresses. However this year we’ll be making a slight change to the way we calculate the overall ranking, by focusing more on average finishing positions within individual series rather than normalizing across all series.

To qualify a driver must score a Top 10 finish in F1, IndyCar (ChampCar), NASCAR, World Rally, or make it to the final of an NHRA event.

Top 10 Drivers by the end of February 2008 are:

1. Robert Hight (NHRA)
2. Mikko Hirvonen (WRC)
3. Kyle Busch (NASCAR)
4. Gigi Galli (WRC)
5. Petter Solberg (WRC)
6. Tony Stewart (NASCAR)
7. Ryan Newman (NASCAR)
8. Jari-Matti Latvala (WRC)
9. Sebastian Loeb (WRC)
10. Greg Anderson (NHRA)