diff --git a/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/engine/Engine.java b/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/engine/Engine.java
index 73e87fe39a1da..f60f181de9007 100644
--- a/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/engine/Engine.java
+++ b/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/engine/Engine.java
@@ -1156,7 +1156,7 @@ public void failEngine(String reason, @Nullable Exception failure) {
         if (failure != null) {
             maybeDie(reason, failure);
         }
-        if (failEngineLock.tryLock() && store.tryIncRef()) {
+        if (failEngineLock.tryLock()) {
             try {
                 if (failedEngine.get() != null) {
                     logger.warn(() ->
@@ -1178,11 +1178,19 @@ public void failEngine(String reason, @Nullable Exception failure) {
                     // on the same node that we don't see the corrupted marker file when
                     // the shard is initializing
                     if (Lucene.isCorruptionException(failure)) {
-                        try {
-                            store.markStoreCorrupted(new IOException("failed engine (reason: [" + reason + "])",
-                                ExceptionsHelper.unwrapCorruption(failure)));
-                        } catch (IOException e) {
-                            logger.warn("Couldn't mark store corrupted", e);
+                        if (store.tryIncRef()) {
+                            try {
+                                store.markStoreCorrupted(new IOException("failed engine (reason: [" + reason + "])",
+                                    ExceptionsHelper.unwrapCorruption(failure)));
+                            } catch (IOException e) {
+                                logger.warn("Couldn't mark store corrupted", e);
+                            } finally {
+                                store.decRef();
+                            }
+                        } else {
+                            logger.warn(() ->
+                                    new ParameterizedMessage("tried to mark store as corrupted but store is already closed. [{}]", reason),
+                                failure);
                         }
                     }
                     eventListener.onFailedEngine(reason, failure);
@@ -1191,8 +1199,6 @@ public void failEngine(String reason, @Nullable Exception failure) {
                 if (failure != null) inner.addSuppressed(failure);
                 // don't bubble up these exceptions up
                 logger.warn("failEngine threw exception", inner);
-            } finally {
-                store.decRef();
             }
         } else {
             logger.debug(() -> new ParameterizedMessage("tried to fail engine but could not acquire lock - engine should " +