diff --git a/build/root/Makefile b/build/root/Makefile
index 3d742b4703d..03a7ea8f090 100644
--- a/build/root/Makefile
+++ b/build/root/Makefile
@@ -226,10 +226,8 @@ define TEST_E2E_NODE_HELP_INFO
 #  TIMEOUT: For REMOTE=true only. How long (in golang duration format) to wait
 #    for ginkgo tests to complete. Defaults to 45m.
 #  PARALLELISM: The number of ginkgo nodes to run.  Defaults to 8.
-#  RUNTIME: Container runtime to use (eg. docker, remote).
-#    Defaults to "docker".
 #  CONTAINER_RUNTIME_ENDPOINT: remote container endpoint to connect to.
-#    Used when RUNTIME is set to "remote".
+#    Defaults to "/run/containerd/containerd.sock".
 #  IMAGE_SERVICE_ENDPOINT: remote image endpoint to connect to, to prepull images.
 #    Used when RUNTIME is set to "remote".
 #  IMAGE_CONFIG_FILE: path to a file containing image configuration.
diff --git a/hack/make-rules/test-e2e-node.sh b/hack/make-rules/test-e2e-node.sh
index fb93517759b..0109f664608 100755
--- a/hack/make-rules/test-e2e-node.sh
+++ b/hack/make-rules/test-e2e-node.sh
@@ -39,7 +39,7 @@ parallelism=${PARALLELISM:-8}
 artifacts="${ARTIFACTS:-"/tmp/_artifacts/$(date +%y%m%dT%H%M%S)"}"
 remote=${REMOTE:-"false"}
 remote_mode=${REMOTE_MODE:-"gce"}
-container_runtime_endpoint=${CONTAINER_RUNTIME_ENDPOINT:-""}
+container_runtime_endpoint=${CONTAINER_RUNTIME_ENDPOINT:-"unix:///run/containerd/containerd.sock"}
 image_service_endpoint=${IMAGE_SERVICE_ENDPOINT:-""}
 run_until_failure=${RUN_UNTIL_FAILURE:-"false"}
 test_args=${TEST_ARGS:-""}