Do putting higher gears in ALWAYS make the car faster??

My friends excuse for not running faster then what he used to was that he had 4.11's in and he was lossing all his torque so he was going to go to 3.73..

Now im not 100% sure but gears cant make you slower right?? unless say your going from like 100 punch or somthing with 4.11's then i could see how you could lose.

 

That is what I had always thought too. Maybe he was having a traction problem.

 

Gears can make you slower if you are not getting equal traction as before. Also if it makes you shift at bad time; IE nearing the traps. It is possible to run slower with numerically higher gears... Also there are other variables like the weather etc that play a roll into the equation. I guess the first thing I would ask is how much did he lose? .. then go from there and compare slips to see how far everything off is thru the whole run. Then try to rule out if it was weather, driving, traction, or the gear itself...etc