We investigate the cosmological role of a tracking field phi in extended qu
intessence scenarios, where the dynamical vacuum energy driving the acceler
ation of the universe today possesses an explicit coupling with the Ricci s
calar R of the form F(phi )R/2, where F(phi) mimics general relativity toda
y, F(phi (o)) = 1/8 piG. We analyze explicit nonminimally coupled (NMC) mod
els where F(phi) = 1/8 piG+ xi(phi (2)-phi (2)(o)). with xi is the coupling
constant and phi (o) is the Q value today. Tracker solutions for these NMC
models, with inverse power-law potentials, possess an initial enhancement
of the scalar field dynamics, named the R-boost, caused by the effective po
tential generated by the Ricci scalar in the Klein-Gordon equation. During
this phase the held performs a "gravitational'' slow rolling until the true
potential becomes important. We give accurate analytic formulas describing
the R-boost, showing that the quintessence energy in this phase scales wit
h the redshift: as (1+z)(2). When the R-boost ends, the field trajectory ma
tches the tracker solution in minimally coupled theories. We compute pertur
bations in these tracking extended quintessence models, by integrating the
full set of equations for the evolution of linear fluctuations in scalar-te
nsor theories of gravity, and assuming Gaussian scale-invariant initial per
turbations. The integrated Sachs-Wolfe (ISW) effect on the cosmic microwave
background (CMB) angular spectrum causes a change deltaC(l)/C-l similar or
equal to 6[1 - 8 pi GF(phi (dec))] at l less than or similar to 10, where
"dec'' stands for decoupling. Similarly, the CMB acoustic peak multipoles s
hift compared to ordinary tracking quintessence models by roughly an amount
deltal/l similar or equal to [8 pi GF(phi (dec))- 1]/8. The turnover wave
number k(turn) in the matter power spectrum shifts by an amount deltak(turn
)/k(turn)similar or equal to [1-8 pi GF(phi (eq))]/2, where "eq" stands for
matter-radiation equivalence. All these corrections may assume positive as
well as negative values, depending on the sign of the NMC parameter xi. We
show that the above effects can be as large as 10-30% with respect to equi
valent cosmological constant and ordinary tracking quintessence models, res
pecting all the existing experimental constraints on scalar-tensor theories
of gravity. These results demonstrate that the playground where the data o
f the next decade will have their impact includes the nature of the dark en
ergy in the Universe, as well as the structure of the theory of gravity.