diff --git a/testing/static/scripts/admission-cap-test.sh b/testing/static/scripts/admission-cap-test.sh
index 25fbd9c..843bdf5 100755
--- a/testing/static/scripts/admission-cap-test.sh
+++ b/testing/static/scripts/admission-cap-test.sh
@@ -87,13 +87,23 @@ CAP_IP=$(node_ip "$CAP_NODE")
 [ -n "$CAP_IP" ] || fail "could not resolve docker_ip for node-$CAP_NODE in $TOPO_FILE"
 info "cap'd node: node-$CAP_NODE (ip $CAP_IP, max_peers=$MAX_PEERS)"
 
+# Read the cap'd node's peer_count, or the empty string if it did not answer.
+#
+# Empty is deliberately distinct from a real 0. An `|| echo 0` fallback cannot
+# do that job here: `||` binds to the last stage of the pipeline, which succeeds
+# on empty input, so the fallback never fires and an unreachable container would
+# be reported as a legitimate zero.
+read_peer_count() {
+    docker exec "fips-node-${CAP_NODE}${FIPS_CI_NAME_SUFFIX:-}" fipsctl show status 2>/dev/null \
+        | grep -m1 peer_count | sed 's/.*: *//' | tr -d ','
+}
+
 # ── Phase 1: wait for convergence ────────────────────────────────────
 info "phase 1: wait for node-$CAP_NODE peer_count to reach $MAX_PEERS (90s timeout)"
 deadline=$(($(date +%s) + 90))
 pc=0
 while [ "$(date +%s)" -lt "$deadline" ]; do
-    pc=$(docker exec "fips-node-${CAP_NODE}${FIPS_CI_NAME_SUFFIX:-}" fipsctl show status 2>/dev/null \
-        | grep -m1 peer_count | sed 's/.*: *//' | tr -d ',' || echo 0)
+    pc=$(read_peer_count)
     [ "$pc" = "$MAX_PEERS" ] && break
     sleep 2
 done
@@ -186,9 +196,21 @@ for n in $DENIED; do
 done
 
 # ── Phase 4: cap'd node still at exactly max_peers ───────────────────
-pc_final=$(docker exec "fips-node-${CAP_NODE}${FIPS_CI_NAME_SUFFIX:-}" fipsctl show status 2>/dev/null \
-    | grep -m1 peer_count | sed 's/.*: *//' | tr -d ',' || echo 0)
-info "node-$CAP_NODE final peer_count=$pc_final (expected $MAX_PEERS)"
+#
+# Polled rather than sampled once. The load driver above restarts the denied
+# peers every 15s and its final restart lands in the same second this runs, so a
+# single read can hit a daemon busy with those restarts and come back empty --
+# which is a harness race, not a cap regression. Retry briefly before believing
+# the answer. A genuine regression still fails, just after the retry window,
+# because the loop exits early only on the expected value.
+pc_final=""
+deadline=$(($(date +%s) + 30))
+while [ "$(date +%s)" -lt "$deadline" ]; do
+    pc_final=$(read_peer_count)
+    [ "$pc_final" = "$MAX_PEERS" ] && break
+    sleep 2
+done
+info "node-$CAP_NODE final peer_count=${pc_final:-<no answer>} (expected $MAX_PEERS)"
 [ "$pc_final" = "$MAX_PEERS" ] || OVERALL=1
 
 if [ "$OVERALL" -eq 0 ]; then