Penske’s No. 7 963, piloted by Dane Cameron, Matt Campbell, Josef Newgarden, and Felipe Nasr, secured a close victory over Cadillac, marking Porsche’s 19th overall triumph at Daytona.
Team Penske boasts two previous sportscar victories at Daytona, clinching a GT/GTO class win in 1966 and the overall prize in 1969 with Mark Donohue and Chuck Parsons enjoying a comfortable 30-lap lead in a Lola T70-Chevrolet.
“It’s hard for me to believe it,” expressed the 86-year-old Penske to IMSA Radio. “This is one of the biggest wins we’ve had, now we’ve got to go for the big one at Le Mans, you know that.”
Reflecting on the past, Penske shared with NBC, “When you think about 1969, we went here with a Lola. Things were a lot different in those days, but 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 seven-tenths of a second was a difference after 24 hours. It’s unbelievable.”
When questioned about feeling more pressure to conquer Le Mans in June following the Daytona win, Porsche Motorsport’s director of factory racing Urs Kuratle responded to Motorsport.com, “Ask me tomorrow if it’s more or less pressure! The good thing is that we know the car can do it, I think we quite impressively showed that all four cars made it through the race with no major technical issues, that helps us a lot. But also it’s not a secret that we are not completely there yet, there’s still a lot to do for us towards Le Mans and all the other races.”
Penske’s managing director Jonathan Diuguid praised the No. 7 driving squad for their exemplary performance, stating, “A lot was made about the four-driver lineup we had in both cars.
The fact that all four of our [winning] drivers led the race at some point shows you how strong they were all day long. The No. 7 car and the No. 6 were in contention to win the race, Felipe carried it across the finish line, but not a single one of these guys put a foot wrong all day, and that’s what put us in the position to win.”