Yes, you are correct...Sonar does not have any control during tracking, as it is all up to the interface. As I said earlier, I used to track hot...I looked for my meters to just hover in the hot stage of "orange" but never hit clipping "red".
 
Now I never leave the "green" or even enter into the "orange" on my MOTU 8PRE.
 
But to get the levels I want, I think I need to reduce those tracking "green" peaks, just a little more.
 
I don't mind adjusting the tracks in Sonar by a little here and there, but major adjustments just doesn't seem right...if you know what I mean.

EDIT: I thought you meant during mixing.  I see you mean during tracking.  I deleted my comments.
 
 
 

Something else you can do is insert an effects chain with no effects loaded on it and use that to control gain of a track.

I use a Mackie Control. Over the years I have learned to lower all faders to inf and raise each one at a time so all are producing the level I want for each. This depends on all sorts of things. But a rule of thumb is they should all have much the same level RMS not peak. From there its checking each track for what it is supposed to do. A Lead should be up front. Background should be in the background and so on. 
 
There are so many plugins now that its hard to resist using them when setting levels. I think one shouldn't use any until a problem pops up and a plugin will solve it. 
 
Really this is a lot bigger subject then one might first think. To summarize start low and increase as needed.