diff --git a/pkg/kubelet/kubelet.go b/pkg/kubelet/kubelet.go
index 60014070826..698e0f73090 100644
--- a/pkg/kubelet/kubelet.go
+++ b/pkg/kubelet/kubelet.go
@@ -1181,23 +1181,8 @@ func (kl *Kubelet) SyncPods(allPods []*api.Pod, podSyncTypes map[types.UID]metri
 	}
 	kl.statusManager.RemoveOrphanedStatuses(podFullNames)
 
-	// Reject pods that we cannot run.
-	kl.handleNotFittingPods(allPods)
-
-	// Reject new creation requests if diskspace is running low.
-	kl.handleOutOfDisk(allPods, podSyncTypes)
-
-	// Pod phase progresses monotonically. Once a pod has reached a final state,
-	// it should never leave irregardless of the restart policy. The statuses
-	// of such pods should not be changed, and there is no need to sync them.
-	// TODO: the logic here does not handle two cases:
-	//   1. If the containers were removed immediately after they died, kubelet
-	//      may fail to generate correct statuses, let alone filtering correctly.
-	//   2. If kubelet restarted before writing the terminated status for a pod
-	//      to the apiserver, it could still restart the terminated pod (even
-	//      though the pod was not considered terminated by the apiserver).
-	// These two conditions could be alleviated by checkpointing kubelet.
-	pods := kl.filterOutTerminatedPods(allPods)
+	// Handles pod admission.
+	pods := kl.admitPods(allPods, podSyncTypes)
 
 	glog.V(4).Infof("Desired: %#v", pods)
 	var err error
@@ -1358,10 +1343,10 @@ func (kl *Kubelet) checkCapacityExceeded(pods []*api.Pod) (fitting []*api.Pod, n
 }
 
 // handleOutOfDisk detects if pods can't fit due to lack of disk space.
-func (kl *Kubelet) handleOutOfDisk(pods []*api.Pod, podSyncTypes map[types.UID]metrics.SyncPodType) {
+func (kl *Kubelet) handleOutOfDisk(pods []*api.Pod, podSyncTypes map[types.UID]metrics.SyncPodType) []*api.Pod {
 	if len(podSyncTypes) == 0 {
 		// regular sync. no new pods
-		return
+		return pods
 	}
 	outOfDockerDisk := false
 	outOfRootDisk := false
@@ -1381,18 +1366,26 @@ func (kl *Kubelet) handleOutOfDisk(pods []*api.Pod, podSyncTypes map[types.UID]m
 	// We ignore the first disk check to ensure that running pods are not killed.
 	// Disk manager will only declare out of disk problems if unfreeze has been called.
 	kl.diskSpaceManager.Unfreeze()
-	if outOfDockerDisk || outOfRootDisk {
-		for _, pod := range pods {
-			// Only reject pods that didn't start yet.
-			if podSyncTypes[pod.UID] == metrics.SyncPodCreate {
-				kl.recorder.Eventf(pod, "OutOfDisk", "Cannot start the pod due to lack of disk space.")
-				kl.statusManager.SetPodStatus(pod, api.PodStatus{
-					Phase:   api.PodFailed,
-					Message: "Pod cannot be started due to lack of disk space."})
-				continue
-			}
-		}
+
+	if !outOfDockerDisk && !outOfRootDisk {
+		// Disk space is fine.
+		return pods
 	}
+
+	var fitting []*api.Pod
+	for i := range pods {
+		pod := pods[i]
+		// Only reject pods that didn't start yet.
+		if podSyncTypes[pod.UID] == metrics.SyncPodCreate {
+			kl.recorder.Eventf(pod, "OutOfDisk", "Cannot start the pod due to lack of disk space.")
+			kl.statusManager.SetPodStatus(pod, api.PodStatus{
+				Phase:   api.PodFailed,
+				Message: "Pod cannot be started due to lack of disk space."})
+			continue
+		}
+		fitting = append(fitting, pod)
+	}
+	return fitting
 }
 
 // checkNodeSelectorMatching detects pods that do not match node's labels.
@@ -1412,9 +1405,10 @@ func (kl *Kubelet) checkNodeSelectorMatching(pods []*api.Pod) (fitting []*api.Po
 	return
 }
 
-// handleNotfittingPods handles pods that do not fit on the node.
-// Currently conflicts on Port.HostPort values, matching node's labels and exceeding node's capacity are handled.
-func (kl *Kubelet) handleNotFittingPods(pods []*api.Pod) {
+// handleNotfittingPods handles pods that do not fit on the node and returns
+// the pods that fit. It currently checks host port conflicts, node selector
+// mismatches, and exceeded node capacity.
+func (kl *Kubelet) handleNotFittingPods(pods []*api.Pod) []*api.Pod {
 	fitting, notFitting := checkHostPortConflicts(pods)
 	for _, pod := range notFitting {
 		kl.recorder.Eventf(pod, "hostPortConflict", "Cannot start the pod due to host port conflict.")
@@ -1436,6 +1430,38 @@ func (kl *Kubelet) handleNotFittingPods(pods []*api.Pod) {
 			Phase:   api.PodFailed,
 			Message: "Pod cannot be started due to exceeded capacity"})
 	}
+	return fitting
+}
+
+// admitPods handles pod admission. It filters out terminated pods, and pods
+// that don't fit on the node, and may reject pods if node is overcommitted.
+func (kl *Kubelet) admitPods(allPods []*api.Pod, podSyncTypes map[types.UID]metrics.SyncPodType) []*api.Pod {
+	// Pod phase progresses monotonically. Once a pod has reached a final state,
+	// it should never leave irregardless of the restart policy. The statuses
+	// of such pods should not be changed, and there is no need to sync them.
+	// TODO: the logic here does not handle two cases:
+	//   1. If the containers were removed immediately after they died, kubelet
+	//      may fail to generate correct statuses, let alone filtering correctly.
+	//   2. If kubelet restarted before writing the terminated status for a pod
+	//      to the apiserver, it could still restart the terminated pod (even
+	//      though the pod was not considered terminated by the apiserver).
+	// These two conditions could be alleviated by checkpointing kubelet.
+	pods := kl.filterOutTerminatedPods(allPods)
+
+	// Respect the pod creation order when resolving conflicts.
+	sort.Sort(podsByCreationTime(pods))
+
+	// Reject pods that we cannot run.
+	// handleNotFittingPods relies on static information (e.g. immutable fields
+	// in the pod specs or machine information that doesn't change without
+	// rebooting), and the pods are sorted by immutable creation time. Hence it
+	// should only rejects new pods without checking the pod sync types.
+	fitting := kl.handleNotFittingPods(pods)
+
+	// Reject new creation requests if diskspace is running low.
+	admittedPods := kl.handleOutOfDisk(fitting, podSyncTypes)
+
+	return admittedPods
 }
 
 // syncLoop is the main loop for processing changes. It watches for changes from