The final hours of the race became a see-sawing contest between the #7 Porsche and Whelen Engineering’s #31 Cadillac with Campbell gaining the lead on-track in a daring battle with Jack Aitken.
Whelen stole it back under the penultimate Caution, before Penske was able to respond in kind when the race went yellow for the final time.
From there, Felipe Nasr had his work cut out as he tried to stave off Tom Blomqvist, but eventually prevailed by 2.112s.
It marked the latest triumph in Campbell’s flourishing career as a Porsche factory driver, which was kicked off when he won the Carrera Cup Australia title with McElrea Racing and then the Supercup Scholarship in 2016.
His resume already included outright victory in the Bathurst 12 Hour, a class win at Daytona, and another in his 24 Hours of Le Mans debut.
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However, it was the very first for the Porsche Penske effort in IMSA’s flagship race, with the Weissach marque having not won outright in that event since 2003 (or 2010 with a third party-developed engine) nor the famous American team since all the way back in 1969.
“It’s incredible the way this race ebbs and flows and the way we took it to the Cadillacs today,” said Campbell.
“Hats off to them. They really gave it to us.
“To finally get our first big victory in the world is phenomenal. What a team. We finally got it done.”
Team Penske competes as the works Porsche effort in both IMSA and the FIA World Endurance Championship thanks to LMDh ruleset.
While it had already won relative sprints in IMSA at Long Beach, Road America, and Indianapolis, the Daytona triumph represents a new high water mark for the programme.
It is still yet to win in WEC, but Roger Penske now has his eyes on the biggest prize of them all.
“Last year at Le Mans we stumbled and we had some good runs last year, but to come back here and have both cars run for 24 hours and then win the race, it’s hard for me to believe it,” said ‘The Captain’.
“I’ll tell you, this goes down as one of the biggest wins we’ve had. Now we have to go for the big one at Le Mans, you know that.”
Penske also had praise for the Weissach marque and the job which Nasr did under pressure in the closing stages.
“You think about 1969 we won here with a Lola, and things were a lot different in those days,” he noted.
“Just to think about today, the biggest crowd they’ve had here for a sports car race. My hat’s off to IMSA, obviously for Porsche to give us the equipment. But the drivers and at the end there with Felipe…
“But just to see the competitiveness and six or seventh tenths of a second was the difference after 24 hours. That’s unbelievable. Hard to say.”
Campbell and Nasr shared driving duties with Dane Cameron and Josef Newgarden, the latter of whom was making his second start in Penske’s Porsche operation.
Newgarden’s IndyCar team-mate, Scott McLaughlin, finished fifth in the LMP2 class with Tower Motorsports.
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