Brad Keselowski had one of the fastest cars in the field on Sunday at ISM Raceway, but an early tire issue kept BK and the Deuce from competing for the win in the TicketGuardian 500.

The No. 2 was fast early, moving as high as third before a flat tire put a damper on the day. After many pit stops to determine the root cause of the tire issue, putting the Deuce as far as two laps down — and Brad in danger of his first career last-place finish — the 2 Crew rallied to a 19th place finish in the fourth race of the 2019 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season.

Afterward, Brad took to Facebook Live to discuss a long day at the track.

“It was kind of a major disappointment. I thought we had one of the best cars,” he said. “Guess we ran over something right off the yellow. We were running third and I felt like we had a good enough car to contend for the win. But that’s the way it goes. Long day from there, guys fought hard to get 19th out of what I thought was going to be my first ever last place finish. Not the day we wanted, but sometimes it’s just not in your hands and we pick up the pieces and move on.”

The Alliance Truck Parts Ford Fusion qualified fifth, the best starting spot of the season for the 2 Crew. From there, Brad went about carving out a spot near the front of the field, moving from fifth to third in just a few short laps. Thanks to some aggressive moves on the apron.

BK was running third when the first caution of the day came out at Lap 39, and it was there that things began to go awry. The 2 Crew elected to make a stop and came back out on the backend of the Top 10, but from the restart something was going wrong with Brad’s car, keeping him from being able to turn aggressively and as a result, he dropped back in the field.

Finally, Brad said, it felt like something broke, he tagged the wall in Turn 1 and it was his No. 2 car that brought out the second caution flag of the day at Lap 65.

From there, it was a fight with the car and the field for the rest of the day for the 2 Crew.

At one point they fell as far as two laps back, but they continued to make adjustments and BK continued to fight to get the lucky dog, avoiding more near hits along the way.

Finally back on the lead lap as the race wound toward its conclusion, Brad had one more swipe with the No. 47 car of Ryan Preece, and the wall, this time the inside wall, which he scraped while avoiding the spinning No. 47 car.

That spin brought out the final caution of the day and forced Brad to come back down pit road a few laps after pitting.

He did his best to stay on the lead lap thereafter, with damage to both sides of his car, but was passed by race-winner Kyle Busch with a few laps remaining as he cruised to the 19th place finish as the third car one lap down.

“It was a tough day,” Brad said. “I’m really proud of all the guys on the Alliance Truck Parts team because they worked hard all day. We’ll rebound next week in Fontana.”

The Monster Energy NASCAR Cup series season continues in California where Auto Club Speedway in Fontana will host the Auto Club 400 on Sunday. Race coverage begins at 3:30 ET on FOX.