diff --git a/test/e2e_node/cpu_manager_test.go b/test/e2e_node/cpu_manager_test.go
index b76df6ca789..8bf744ec6da 100644
--- a/test/e2e_node/cpu_manager_test.go
+++ b/test/e2e_node/cpu_manager_test.go
@@ -594,6 +594,12 @@ func runCPUManagerTests(f *framework.Framework) {
 		err = e2epod.NewPodClient(f).MatchContainerOutput(pod.Name, pod.Spec.Containers[0].Name, expAllowedCPUsListRegex)
 		framework.ExpectNoError(err, "expected log not found in container [%s] of pod [%s]",
 			pod.Spec.Containers[0].Name, pod.Name)
+
+		deletePodSyncByName(f, pod.Name)
+		// we need to wait for all containers to really be gone so cpumanager reconcile loop will not rewrite the cpu_manager_state.
+		// this is in turn needed because we will have an unavoidable (in the current framework) race with the
+		// reconcile loop which will make our attempt to delete the state file and to restore the old config go haywire
+		waitForAllContainerRemoval(pod.Name, pod.Namespace)
 	})
 
 	ginkgo.It("should assign CPUs as expected with enhanced policy based on strict SMT alignment", func(ctx context.Context) {