And here is a series of some really good photos and articles hosted at the website established to remember Dave MacDonald.
http://www.davemacdonald.net/gallery/closeups/nascaraugusta.htm
Race program ( Lloyd Creech collection)
Another article about Buck Baker's fast lap from Harvey Tollison's collection
And a notes column about the race again from Harvey Tollison's collection
I think I found the answer re: Baker's top speed. Looks like Buck did indeed lay down the quickest lap in qualifying - but in the third round. That's apparently why he didn't start from the pole position. From Spartanburg Herald
Interesting that Buck supposedly took the top spot. Racing-Reference.info shows him starting 9th in the Petty Plymouth. And this pic shows the front row starters as Lorenzen and Fireball. Can't see who was 3rd, but Pearson started 4th in Cotton's Dodge.
Dave MacDonald spun during the race, but he recovered to finish 2nd.
Race report from Charleston's News And Courier
Brief (and inaccurate) AP wire race report as published in the Daytona Beach Morning Journal
When the American 500 was rained out on its original date, the first attempt at a make-up date was November 1. A casualty of choosing that date was Kingsport Speedway. Kingsport had scheduled a 300-lap GN event - the Buccaneer 300 on August 9. The race was also rained out. It was originally rescheduled for Wednesday, August 26th - sandwiched between a Sunday race at Talladega and a Friday night race at Bowman Gray. A few days later, however, NASCAR reconsidered the scheduling and opted for November 1 as the make-up date. But when Rockingham was rained out on October 25, Kingsport's rescheduled date apparently got the boot. Permanently. As it turned out, neither Kingsport nor Rockingham hosted a race on November 1.
The race was featured in the April 1971 issue of Stock Car Racing magazine.
The race when it finally ran became the last superspeedway event of the season. It was expected the season would close at Texas World Speedway; however, the race was dropped when a purse couldn't be funded. Instead, the 1970 season closed at Langley Speedway in Hampton VA. And it turned out with the formation of the Winston Cup Series with R.J. Reynolds sponsorship that the race at Langley would be its final GN event. Source: Times-News
Race report from The Robesonian
