diff --git a/.buildkite/scripts/simple_test.sh b/.buildkite/scripts/simple_test.sh
index 8821a03ce..6c406d095 100755
--- a/.buildkite/scripts/simple_test.sh
+++ b/.buildkite/scripts/simple_test.sh
@@ -49,4 +49,4 @@ VENV_PYTHON="${VENV_DIR}/bin/python"
 
 "${UV_BIN}" pip install --python "${VENV_PYTHON}" vllm==0.11.0
 "${UV_BIN}" pip install --python "${VENV_PYTHON}" -e ".[dev]"
-"${VENV_PYTHON}" -m pytest tests/test_omni_llm.py
+"${VENV_PYTHON}" -m pytest -v -s tests/test_omni_llm.py
diff --git a/tests/test_omni_llm.py b/tests/test_omni_llm.py
index 12073576a..13153d6eb 100644
--- a/tests/test_omni_llm.py
+++ b/tests/test_omni_llm.py
@@ -868,8 +868,9 @@ def test_wait_for_stages_ready_timeout(monkeypatch, fake_stage_config):
     from vllm_omni.entrypoints.omni_llm import OmniLLM
 
     # Use very short timeout
-    with pytest.raises(SystemExit):
-        OmniLLM(model="any", init_timeout=0.01)
+    llm = OmniLLM(model="any", init_timeout=0.01)
+    # Verify that no stages are ready
+    assert len(llm._stages_ready) == 0
 
 
 def test_generate_handles_error_messages(monkeypatch, fake_stage_config):