(story originally appeared in the Naples Daily News - by Tom Rife)

Swamp buggy leadfoot Dan Greenling wasn’t able to complete the “clean sweep” in Sunday’s Spring Classic.

Nevertheless, the man who won Big Feature events in October and January departed the Florida Sports Park with his first-ever Budweiser Cup Series points championship.

Greenling finished second to Amy Chesser’s Aches-N-Pains in the class final of the Pro Modified two-wheel drive division and as a result, didn’t advance to the feature rounds. The runner-up spot in his class, however, earned him two points and he ended up taking the 2007-08 championship by five points over defending world champ William Thornton and by six over 1993 titlist Roy Ortega.

In topping the field in the 18th annual Bud Cup chase, Greenling became the 10th different competitor to have his name added to the big trophy. Eddie Chesser has won seven championships and with two apiece are David Sims and Thornton.

On Sunday, Greenling was attempting to be the first driver to win all three Big Features in the same points season since the Bud Cup system was put into place in 1991. Eddie Chesser had won three straight Big Feature flags in 1991, but they came in different points seasons. It used to be that the final race of the three-legged series was in October, not March.

“It’s disappointing not to win today but still it’s great to be the points champion,” said Greenling, whose buggy experienced fuel pick-up hiccups in the class final against Amy Chesser.

Earlier in the day, he had run two identical, blazing laps of 51.50 seconds. The only other driver to crack the 52-second barrier Sunday was Tyler Johns, whose Patriot posted a 51.91 time in a victory over Leonard Chesser’s Dats Da One.

Greenling beat Johns in the class semifinal, but immediately after that race, shut his machine down before getting back to the pits. He knew then that something was wrong.

His Roll On buggy just wasn’t the same after that.

“Fuel problems,” he said. “It was coming and going. I just didn’t have the power.”

Overall, Greenling was tickled to claim world champion honors in only his fifth year of driving at the Mile-O-Mud.

“We did it in our fifth year and that’s pretty good,” he said. “We’ll take it.”