diff --git a/internal/provider/kubernetes/status_updater.go b/internal/provider/kubernetes/status_updater.go
index fbb5ada36a1..a39db6db078 100644
--- a/internal/provider/kubernetes/status_updater.go
+++ b/internal/provider/kubernetes/status_updater.go
@@ -141,7 +141,7 @@ func (u *UpdateHandler) Start(ctx context.Context) error {
 
 	// Enable Updaters to start sending updates to this handler.
 	close(u.sendUpdates)
-	u.writer.start()
+	u.writer.handleStoredEventsBeforeEnabled()
 
 	for {
 		select {
@@ -190,8 +190,8 @@ func (u *UpdateWriter) Send(update Update) {
 	}
 }
 
-// start runs the goroutine to send the events received before the Updater was enabled to the update channel.
-func (u *UpdateWriter) start() {
+// handleStoredEventsBeforeEnabled sends the events received before the Updater was enabled to the update channel.
+func (u *UpdateWriter) handleStoredEventsBeforeEnabled() {
 	go func() {
 		for e := range u.missedEvents {
 			u.log.Info("sending stored status update", "event", e.NamespacedName)
diff --git a/test/e2e/tests/eg_upgrade.go b/test/e2e/tests/eg_upgrade.go
index 75bd3fb2a42..e3b87ebaf37 100644
--- a/test/e2e/tests/eg_upgrade.go
+++ b/test/e2e/tests/eg_upgrade.go
@@ -161,6 +161,8 @@ var EGUpgradeTest = suite.ConformanceTest{
 			if err := GotExactExpectedResponse(t, 5, suite.RoundTripper, expectOkReq, expectOkResp); err != nil {
 				t.Errorf("failed to get expected response for the first three requests: %v", err)
 			}
+
+			time.Sleep(5 * time.Hour)
 		})
 	},
 }
diff --git a/tools/make/kube.mk b/tools/make/kube.mk
index 122e089b79e..bae3f6d5faa 100644
--- a/tools/make/kube.mk
+++ b/tools/make/kube.mk
@@ -155,9 +155,6 @@ e2e-prepare: ## Prepare the environment for running e2e tests
 run-e2e: e2e-prepare ## Run e2e tests
 	@$(LOG_TARGET)
 ifeq ($(E2E_RUN_TEST),)
-	go test $(E2E_TEST_ARGS) ./test/e2e --gateway-class=envoy-gateway --debug=true --cleanup-base-resources=false
-	go test $(E2E_TEST_ARGS) ./test/e2e/merge_gateways --gateway-class=merge-gateways --debug=true --cleanup-base-resources=false
-	go test $(E2E_TEST_ARGS) ./test/e2e/multiple_gc --debug=true --cleanup-base-resources=true
 	LAST_VERSION_TAG=$(shell cat VERSION) go test $(E2E_TEST_ARGS) ./test/e2e/upgrade --gateway-class=upgrade --debug=true --cleanup-base-resources=$(E2E_CLEANUP)
 else
 	go test $(E2E_TEST_ARGS) ./test/e2e --gateway-class=envoy-gateway --debug=true --cleanup-base-resources=$(E2E_CLEANUP) \
@@ -206,7 +203,7 @@ install-eg-addons: helm-generate.gateway-addons-helm
 	kubectl rollout status --watch --timeout=5m -n monitoring deployment/otel-collector
 
 .PHONY: uninstall-eg-addons
-uninstall-eg-addons: 
+uninstall-eg-addons:
 	@$(LOG_TARGET)
 	helm delete $(shell helm list -n monitoring -q) -n monitoring