Narrative:

We were given clearance from ZZZ tower to 'taxi into and hold; runway 25R; keep proceeding company aircraft in sight.' after having lined up; stopped; and holding on runway 25R; I kept my eyes on the proceeding company aircraft taking off while reaching down to set the parking brake and inadvertently moved number one start lever off the start position causing number one engine to roll back. Realizing what I had done; I immediately placed the number one start lever to cutoff and directed first officer to request tower that we needed to clear the runway; and he immediately made that request. Just after that transmission; ZZZ tower issued takeoff clearance but we declined the takeoff clearance and again requested that we needed to clear off. We were given taxi clearance and we cleared the runway at taxiway B1 and no aircrafts were in the vicinity. Tower asked if we needed assistance and we declined. We subsequently cooled and cleared the affected engine and accomplished engine start; made a PA to the passengers; waited for ops limit of two minutes; and accomplished before taxi and before takeoff checklists and then took off. All engine parameters were normal.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: The Captain inadvertently selected the #1 start lever instead of the parking brake after lining up on the runway while focused on the instructions to keep the preceding company aircraft in sight.

Narrative: We were given clearance from ZZZ Tower to 'taxi into and hold; Runway 25R; keep proceeding Company aircraft in sight.' After having lined up; stopped; and holding on Runway 25R; I kept my eyes on the proceeding Company aircraft taking off while reaching down to set the parking brake and inadvertently moved number one start lever off the START position causing number one engine to roll back. Realizing what I had done; I immediately placed the number one start lever to CUTOFF and directed First Officer to request Tower that we needed to clear the runway; and he immediately made that request. Just after that transmission; ZZZ Tower issued takeoff clearance but we declined the takeoff clearance and again requested that we needed to clear off. We were given taxi clearance and we cleared the runway at Taxiway B1 and no aircrafts were in the vicinity. Tower asked if we needed assistance and we declined. We subsequently cooled and cleared the affected engine and accomplished engine start; made a PA to the Passengers; waited for Ops Limit of two minutes; and accomplished Before Taxi and Before Takeoff Checklists and then took off. All engine parameters were normal.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.