diff --git a/test/pkg/environment/environment.go b/test/pkg/environment/environment.go
index 5a15a4a13446..1549c9f65e0b 100644
--- a/test/pkg/environment/environment.go
+++ b/test/pkg/environment/environment.go
@@ -2,7 +2,6 @@ package environment
 
 import (
 	"context"
-	"flag"
 	"fmt"
 	"testing"
 	"time"
@@ -25,8 +24,6 @@ import (
 	"github.com/aws/karpenter/pkg/utils/project"
 )
 
-var clusterNameFlag = *flag.String("cluster-name", env.WithDefaultString("CLUSTER_NAME", ""), "Cluster name enables discovery of the testing environment")
-
 type Environment struct {
 	context.Context
 	ClusterName string
@@ -63,10 +60,10 @@ func NewEnvironment(t *testing.T) (*Environment, error) {
 }
 
 func DiscoverClusterName(config *rest.Config) (string, error) {
-	if clusterNameFlag != "" {
-		return clusterNameFlag, nil
+	if clusterName := env.WithDefaultString("CLUSTER_NAME", ""); clusterName != "" {
+		return clusterName, nil
 	}
-	if len(config.ExecProvider.Args) > 5 {
+	if config.ExecProvider != nil && len(config.ExecProvider.Args) > 5 {
 		return config.ExecProvider.Args[5], nil
 	}
 	return "", fmt.Errorf("-cluster-name is not set and could not be discovered")
diff --git a/test/pkg/environment/expectations.go b/test/pkg/environment/expectations.go
index ec408edb58c7..0e4c133da25f 100644
--- a/test/pkg/environment/expectations.go
+++ b/test/pkg/environment/expectations.go
@@ -2,7 +2,6 @@ package environment
 
 import (
 	"bytes"
-	"context"
 	"fmt"
 	"io"
 	"strings"
@@ -124,7 +123,6 @@ func (env *Environment) eventuallyExpectScaleDown() {
 		// expect the current node count to be what it was when the test started
 		g.Expect(env.Monitor.NodeCount()).To(Equal(env.Monitor.NodeCountAtReset()))
 	}).Should(Succeed(), fmt.Sprintf("expected scale down to %d nodes, had %d", env.Monitor.NodeCountAtReset(), env.Monitor.NodeCount()))
-	logging.FromContext(context.Background()).Info(env.Monitor.NodeCountAtReset())
 }
 
 func (env *Environment) ExpectCreatedNodeCount(comparator string, nodeCount int) {
diff --git a/test/suites/common/run-test.yaml b/test/suites/common/run-test.yaml
index f8ee4816309c..2d6823152e61 100644
--- a/test/suites/common/run-test.yaml
+++ b/test/suites/common/run-test.yaml
@@ -1,4 +1,3 @@
-
 apiVersion: tekton.dev/v1beta1
 kind: Task
 metadata:
@@ -30,4 +29,4 @@ spec:
     workingDir: $(workspaces.ws.path)
     script: |
       aws eks update-kubeconfig --name $(params.cluster-name)
-      TEST_FILTER=$(params.test-filter) make e2etests
+      KUBECONFIG=/root/.kube/config TEST_FILTER=$(params.test-filter) make e2etests
diff --git a/test/suites/common/setup.yaml b/test/suites/common/setup.yaml
index a4e828745b4c..4aac85cb07f4 100644
--- a/test/suites/common/setup.yaml
+++ b/test/suites/common/setup.yaml
@@ -91,10 +91,8 @@ spec:
     workingDir: $(workspaces.ws.path)
     script: |
       aws eks update-kubeconfig --name $(params.cluster-name)
-      helm repo add karpenter https://charts.karpenter.sh/
-      helm repo update
       helm upgrade --install --kubeconfig /root/.kube/config --namespace karpenter --create-namespace \
-        karpenter karpenter/karpenter \
+        karpenter oci://public.ecr.aws/karpenter/karpenter \
         --version v0-$(git rev-parse HEAD) \
         --set serviceAccount.annotations."eks\.amazonaws\.com/role-arn"="arn:aws:iam::$(cat $(results.account-id.path)):role/$(params.cluster-name)-karpenter" \
         --set clusterName=$(params.cluster-name) \
diff --git a/test/suites/integration/launchtemplates_test.go b/test/suites/integration/launchtemplates_test.go
index d7e64ec1d687..a29f491477ee 100644
--- a/test/suites/integration/launchtemplates_test.go
+++ b/test/suites/integration/launchtemplates_test.go
@@ -32,7 +32,7 @@ var _ = Describe("LaunchTemplates", func() {
 				SubnetSelector:        map[string]string{"karpenter.sh/discovery": env.ClusterName},
 				AMIFamily:             &awsv1alpha1.AMIFamilyAL2,
 			},
-			AMISelector:           map[string]string{"aws-ids": customAMI},
+			AMISelector: map[string]string{"aws-ids": customAMI},
 		})
 		provisioner := test.Provisioner(test.ProvisionerOptions{ProviderRef: &v1alpha5.ProviderRef{Name: provider.Name}})
 		pod := test.Pod()
diff --git a/test/tools/Dockerfile b/test/tools/Dockerfile
index faa73938398c..d421e7743238 100644
--- a/test/tools/Dockerfile
+++ b/test/tools/Dockerfile
@@ -46,3 +46,8 @@ RUN aws --version
 # Install eksctl
 RUN curl --silent --location "https://github.com/weaveworks/eksctl/releases/download/v0.105.0/eksctl_$(uname -s)_amd64.tar.gz" | tar xz -C /tmp
 RUN mv /tmp/eksctl /usr/local/bin
+
+# Cache modules to speed up test execution
+RUN git clone https://github.com/aws/karpenter.git /karpenter
+WORKDIR /karpenter
+RUN GOPROXY=direct go mod tidy
diff --git a/test/tools/README.md b/test/tools/README.md
index adfb33a7067b..34684bc02b07 100644
--- a/test/tools/README.md
+++ b/test/tools/README.md
@@ -2,6 +2,6 @@ Tools is an image that contains binaries useful for testing karpenter.
 
 ```
 aws ecr-public get-login-password --region us-east-1 | docker login --username AWS --password-stdin public.ecr.aws
-docker build ./test/tools -t public.ecr.aws/karpenter-testing/tools:latest
-docker push  public.ecr.aws/karpenter-testing/tools:latest
+docker build ./test/tools --progress plain -t public.ecr.aws/karpenter-testing/tools:latest
+docker push public.ecr.aws/karpenter-testing/tools:latest
 ```