It's been a good weekend to be Jim Epler.

Epler, who recorded the first 300 mile per hour run behind a Funny In Topeka in 1993, climbed behind the wheel of a fuel Funny Car before qualifying on Saturday at the Menards NHRA Nationals.

Just like the mural on the front wing of Justin Ashley's Phillips Connect, the opportunity to warm up defending Funny Car champion Ron Capps NAPA Auto Parts Funny Car came as a total surprise. 

"I had no idea," Epler admitted. "So Justin takes me over because we're talking about doing some business with Ron and NAPA, and they tell me I get to warm up his car. So I was blown away."

Epler admitted he'd stayed away from Funny Cars because the propensity to get the itch to race again was very overwhelming. On Saturday, he said the heck with the itch and climbed into the cockpit. For Capps, it was the first time someone other than himself had ever warmed the car. 

"I had been avoiding getting that itch again," Epler said. "It was really cool for me to do that. And for Ron to let me do it, that was pretty cool."

As Epler readily admits, once the engine fired, the power of the nitro engine reached into his chest and grabbed his heart. 

"When you sit behind that kind of power, it's just an experience like nobody else gets to experience," Epler explained. "That's why I actually didn't want to do it for so long. Cause you start thinking about it again, what it would be like. But it was cool. 

"His car is different. Got a push brake and they do things a little bit different, but it all came right back. It was cool."

The Funny Cars of today are much different than those Epler drove in the early part of the 2000s. He quickly realized they are not one size fits all. 

"The technology on the cars, the setback blowers, just sitting in there with the engine running," Epler said. "First of all, I'm sitting in a seat poured for Ron Capps. So I don't fit the same. The pedals are way too close, so it's not exactly comfortable.

"Just sitting in there and going through the motions was pretty cool. And now I get to thinking, "Oh, that'd be really cool to sit in something I do fit in, and see what it's like."