Aug 31, 2026 · 5 min · 4 segments
"When you cross the finish line, what is the safest way to complete your pass - get out of the gas and put it in neutral, shut down and coast or leave it in gear and let the engine slow you down?" If…
What is the safest way to complete your pass? I would say the safest way to complete your pass would be to leave the engine running with the car in gear and basically allow the deceleration and the gearing to help slow the car down.
And Gary Rivas, the man that ran the place, that started the place, he impressed upon me very early, like, hey, allowing the motor to bring that deceleration back down is basically like putting a second run on the motor every time that you go down the racetrack.
And he was a huge advocate of putting in a neutral at the finish line, shutting it off to immediately stop the motor, and basically lessen that wear and tear.
And it's actually, it's funny, my relatively brief foray into Stock Eliminator is actually our engine builder in stock, a different gentleman, he took that car and raced it twice.
as we were kind of trying to figure things out and both times he came back and, and it spun a bearing and he's like, I don't understand why this does this with me and not with you.
And I mean, you're trying to, to, to, eliminate all oil resistance, but what he ended up determining was that he hurt that thing because he was starving it for oil by not shutting it off in the shutdown area and allowing it to decelerate, whereas I never did because I put it in neutral and shut it off every run.
I would argue that the safer way to do this is again, leave the car running in gear, allow the deceleration of the motor to, to diminish some of that momentum.
Obviously when you put the car in neutral, shut it off, you're killing all the momentum with the brake pedal and you don't have as many options if something were to go wrong, right? With say the brakes.
Um, but like I say, I offset that by the idea that It is easier on equipment, at least in theory, to neutral it and click it off.
I would necessarily teach my kids to do until they're very comfortable in the car.
So like I say, there's a little bit there both ways, but that's my best answer, whether you could consider it a non-answer too, because obviously I straddled the fence there a little bit.
What is the safest way to complete your pass? I would say the safest way to complete your pass would be to leave the engine running with the car in gear and basically allow the deceleration and the gearing to help slow the car down.
And Gary Rivas, the man that ran the place, that started the place, he impressed upon me very early, like, hey, allowing the motor to bring that deceleration back down is basically like putting a second run on the motor every time that you go down the racetrack.
And he was a huge advocate of putting in a neutral at the finish line, shutting it off to immediately stop the motor, and basically lessen that wear and tear.
And it's actually, it's funny, my relatively brief foray into Stock Eliminator is actually our engine builder in stock, a different gentleman, he took that car and raced it twice.
as we were kind of trying to figure things out and both times he came back and, and it spun a bearing and he's like, I don't understand why this does this with me and not with you.
And I mean, you're trying to, to, to, eliminate all oil resistance, but what he ended up determining was that he hurt that thing because he was starving it for oil by not shutting it off in the shutdown area and allowing it to decelerate, whereas I never did because I put it in neutral and shut it off every run.
I would argue that the safer way to do this is again, leave the car running in gear, allow the deceleration of the motor to, to diminish some of that momentum.
Obviously when you put the car in neutral, shut it off, you're killing all the momentum with the brake pedal and you don't have as many options if something were to go wrong, right? With say the brakes.
Um, but like I say, I offset that by the idea that It is easier on equipment, at least in theory, to neutral it and click it off.
I would necessarily teach my kids to do until they're very comfortable in the car.
So like I say, there's a little bit there both ways, but that's my best answer, whether you could consider it a non-answer too, because obviously I straddled the fence there a little bit.
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