Tracy’s Crash No Boost for Penske Team : Indianapolis 500: The plan is to put three drivers in the front row, but doctors have last say.

The most pressing question in years at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway will be answered today, maybe.

The question: Have Roger Penske’s three drivers--Emerson Fittipaldi, Paul Tracy and Al Unser Jr.--been sandbagging during practice for the Indy 500 by not showing all the horsepower available from the new Mercedes-Benz push-rod engine?

Nearly everyone within the sound of the 220-m.p.h. Indy cars going around the Speedway’s 2 1/2-mile rectangular oval insists that they are. Expectations were for the Penske trio to line up in the front row for the race May 29.

Tracy dimmed that prospect Friday, at least slightly, when his Penske-Mercedes slid out of control through the infield coming off the third turn, hit the outside wall twice and then spun back across the track before coming to a stop against the inside guard rail in the fourth turn.

The Canadian driver suffered a concussion and a bruised left foot. He was taken to Methodist Hospital for X-rays and overnight observation. Doctors will decide this morning if he can try to qualify his backup car when time trials begin at 11 a.m. (CDT).

The Penske forces, who have been wearing happy faces because of the performance of the controversial engine, nevertheless insist that today’s four-lap time trials will be more than a one-team show. They claim that conventional Ford and Ilmor overhead cam engines will be competitive.

Nigel Mansell, who came from England last year as the Formula One champion and added the American Indy car championship to his trophy room, has been the most vocal of the crowd charging the Penske team with holding back.

“The Penskes are using only about 50 inches of boost and saving five inches of boost for Saturday,” he said after watching Fittipaldi and Tracy run better than 230 m.p.h. in practice. “I’m not a betting man, but if I were, I would know who to bet on for the pole.”

Said car owner Dick Simon, who has six car-driver combinations ready for qualifying: “It looked to me like they were lifting (getting off the throttle) going down the back straightaway, like they were holding something back.”

The United States Auto Club, which sanctions the 500, permits push-rod, or stock block, engines 55 inches of manifold pressure, called boost. Penske’s Mercedes and some reworked Buicks get the 55 inches. The overhead cam engines, built specifically for racing and used by most of the other drivers, are allowed only 45 inches of boost.

The rule has been in the USAC book for three years, but until Penske and Ilmor engineers Mario Illien and Paul Morgan--with financial backing from Mercedes-Benz--set out to build their own, no one noticed. Buicks had gone fast in the past, but were seldom a factor on race day.

When the project was announced last month, there were rumors that Unser had tested at 238 m.p.h.--a rumor Penske adamantly denies.

“We’re going to be qualifying for the second or third row,” said Mansell, who drives a Ford-powered Lola. “It’s just ludicrous to think the Mercedes won’t be in the front row with 10 more inches of boost than the rest of us.”

Fittipaldi, whose lap of 230.438 m.p.h. has been the fastest in practice, said the Penskes were still having teething problems.

“People don’t seem to realize it, but there is no advantage to sandbagging, so why should we do it?” the defending Indy 500 winner asked. “We are still working out the marriage of the engine and the chassis. I don’t know how much horsepower the engineers are getting, but for sure, more horsepower doesn’t do you any good if you can’t get it around the corners.”

Tracy can attest to that. He had been lapping at better than 228 when the right rear end got loose and he didn’t make the corner.

Whichever way the question is answered today, pole qualifying will be like a race within itself. The winner will receive $100,000 from PPG and a Ford custom van valued at $30,000--richer prizes than the winners receive at some Indy car races.