By NICK SCHWIEN

nschwien@dailynews.net

The cautions came early.

But Ronnie Hill needed them late.

In the end, the Sharon Springs modified racer never could get close enough to Jerry Phillips to challenge for the victory Friday night at RPM Speedway in Hays.

"After I got into second, I needed a caution to see if I could do anything with Phillips," Hill said. "I just never got the chance."

After the yellow flag waved a couple times early in the A-main, it never flew again. And as Hill battled other drivers for the second through fourth positions, Phillips pulled away from the challengers.

"It's hard to reel him in," Hill said about Phillips. "But he's a good, tough, clean racer. He's not going to bump you."

The battle was heated early as Hill started inside the third row, and Phillips started right behind him. Several drivers battled for the top spot, with Lincoln's Wes O'Bannon and Pretty Prairie's Clay Bontrager starting on the front row.

But as the battle ensued, so did some incidental contact. Some of that affected Hill, who lost a bit of momentum as Phillips drove around him.

"I got tangled up early, and Phillips got around me," he said. "I just got hung up with a couple of cars."

Hill rebounded nicely though and waged a three-way battle for the second through fourth spots with O'Bannon and Salina's Corey Lagroon.

But as the battle heated up, Phillips had nothing but a clean race track in front of him.

"It really helps when you can get out front because you can choose your groove," said Phillips, who has more than 100 feature wins. " ... You can get a good feel around the track."

As the race wore on, Hill finally made his way around Lagroon and O'Bannon. By that time, Phillips had a large cushion.

"That was the best thing that could happen for him," said Lagroon, who finished third. "Everyone was racing each other, and he was able to pull away. But he doesn't have more than 100 wins for nothing."

The feeling of victory was nothing new for Phillips, but the veteran admitted he had a few butterflies in his stomach before the green flag flew.

"It doesn't get old. I was pretty nervous before the race tonight," Phillips said. "I had a pretty good starting spot, but you just never know."

Jesse Dunlap started the feature races off with a win in the sport compact class, followed by Michael Smith and Rosie Werth.

Troy Robinson won a caution-filled hobby stock feature, with G.W. Fuller in second.

Terry Cunningham of WaKeeney won an action-packed stock feature, with WaKeeney's Travis Sherfick finishing second. Josh Hudson and Cory Struckhoff, both of Kensington, were third and fourth, respectively.

The next races at RPM Speedway are scheduled for Aug. 29.