If you plan to attend a Winston Cup stock car race and haven't made hotel reservations, you may not want to bother. Simply show up after the final qualifying session of race weekend; several rooms should be available.

More and more teams are going home early from Winston Cup races this season, as the burgeoning success of Nascar's top series has drawn more teams, more sponsors and more promising young drivers. The only problem is, the number of starting positions has stayed the same.

That has made it tougher than ever simply to make the starting lineup, which can vary from 37 to 43 cars depending on track length. In years past, a half-dozen or so semi-regulars would fill the few spots at the tail end of a race lineup that the big-time teams left open. As recently as last season, in fact, some races on the tour started fewer than the maximum number of cars allowed. Big Names Missing

But in qualifying for the four races this year, including the Purolator 500 today in Hampton, Ga., a number of big-name teams and drivers have missed at least one race -- including, last weekend in Richmond, the new team run by Travis Carter, with Hut Stricklin as its driver. And for the last two weekends, Wally Dallenbach, Richard Petty's driver, has gone home early.