diff --git a/test/e2e/density.go b/test/e2e/density.go
index 811f7d9bff6..9a959c7755e 100644
--- a/test/e2e/density.go
+++ b/test/e2e/density.go
@@ -732,7 +732,7 @@ var _ = framework.KubeDescribe("Density", func() {
 					name := additionalPodsPrefix + "-" + strconv.Itoa(i+1)
 					framework.ExpectNoError(framework.DeleteRCAndWaitForGC(c, rcNameToNsMap[name], name))
 				}
-				workqueue.Parallelize(16, nodeCount, deleteRC)
+				workqueue.Parallelize(25, nodeCount, deleteRC)
 			}
 
 			cleanupDensityTest(dConfig)
diff --git a/test/e2e/framework/util.go b/test/e2e/framework/util.go
index a8fee4e0896..dec506c6b7c 100644
--- a/test/e2e/framework/util.go
+++ b/test/e2e/framework/util.go
@@ -2882,7 +2882,7 @@ func DeleteRCAndWaitForGC(c clientset.Interface, ns, name string) error {
 // It waits until the reflector does a List() before returning.
 func podStoreForSelector(c clientset.Interface, ns string, selector labels.Selector) (*testutils.PodStore, error) {
 	ps := testutils.NewPodStore(c, ns, selector, fields.Everything())
-	err := wait.Poll(1*time.Second, 2*time.Minute, func() (bool, error) {
+	err := wait.Poll(100*time.Millisecond, 2*time.Minute, func() (bool, error) {
 		if len(ps.Reflector.LastSyncResourceVersion()) != 0 {
 			return true, nil
 		}