Well . . . a higher wheel horsepower at a given speed will produce greater acceleration.

Now . . . when I'm picking a gear ratio, I graph the torque curve and modify it with the gear ratios (oversimplification, because it assumes equal friction losses at all gear ratios) to see what will work best. The best combination is whatever will give you the highest wheel torque up to a realistic top speed. I ignore anything over about 120MPH, because that is out of my range at any track I run. Again, it's an oversimplification - but it seems to work.