diff --git a/agent/agent_test.go b/agent/agent_test.go
index 06f82d6c8a..3b1bee23fc 100644
--- a/agent/agent_test.go
+++ b/agent/agent_test.go
@@ -66,7 +66,7 @@ func TestAgent_ConnectClusterIDConfig(t *testing.T) {
 		name          string
 		hcl           string
 		wantClusterID string
-		wantPanic     bool
+		wantErr       bool
 	}{
 		{
 			name:          "default TestAgent has fixed cluster id",
@@ -87,30 +87,27 @@ func TestAgent_ConnectClusterIDConfig(t *testing.T) {
 	   }
 	 }`,
 			wantClusterID: "",
-			wantPanic:     true,
+			wantErr:       true,
 		},
 	}
 
 	for _, tt := range tests {
 		t.Run(tt.name, func(t *testing.T) {
-			// Indirection to support panic recovery cleanly
-			testFn := func() {
-				a := &TestAgent{Name: "test", HCL: tt.hcl}
-				a.ExpectConfigError = tt.wantPanic
-				if err := a.Start(); err != nil {
-					t.Fatal(err)
+			a := &TestAgent{Name: tt.name, HCL: tt.hcl}
+			err := a.Start()
+			if tt.wantErr {
+				if err == nil {
+					t.Fatal("expected error, got nil")
 				}
-				defer a.Shutdown()
-
-				cfg := a.consulConfig()
-				assert.Equal(t, tt.wantClusterID, cfg.CAConfig.ClusterID)
+				return // don't run the rest of the test
 			}
-
-			if tt.wantPanic {
-				require.Panics(t, testFn)
-			} else {
-				testFn()
+			if !tt.wantErr && err != nil {
+				t.Fatal(err)
 			}
+			defer a.Shutdown()
+
+			cfg := a.consulConfig()
+			assert.Equal(t, tt.wantClusterID, cfg.CAConfig.ClusterID)
 		})
 	}
 }
diff --git a/agent/testagent.go b/agent/testagent.go
index fbbcb2c712..a7536b5036 100644
--- a/agent/testagent.go
+++ b/agent/testagent.go
@@ -45,12 +45,6 @@ type TestAgent struct {
 
 	HCL string
 
-	// ExpectConfigError can be set to prevent the agent retrying Start on errors
-	// and eventually blowing up with runtime.Goexit. This enables tests to assert
-	// that some specific bit of config actually does prevent startup entirely in
-	// a reasonable way without reproducing a lot of the boilerplate here.
-	ExpectConfigError bool
-
 	// Config is the agent configuration. If Config is nil then
 	// TestConfig() is used. If Config.DataDir is set then it is
 	// the callers responsibility to clean up the data directory.
@@ -199,19 +193,6 @@ func (a *TestAgent) Start() (err error) {
 		agent.ShutdownAgent()
 		agent.ShutdownEndpoints()
 
-		if a.ExpectConfigError {
-			// Panic the error since this can be caught if needed. Pretty gross way to
-			// detect errors but enough for now and this is a tiny edge case that I'd
-			// otherwise not have a way to test at all...
-			//
-			// TODO(sadams): This can be refactored away by returning an
-			// error here instead of panicing, removing the `ExpectConfigError`
-			// field from `TestAgent`, and having the test that uses this
-			// (TestAgent_ConnectClusterIDConfig) check for an error instead of
-			// catching a panic.
-			panic(err)
-		}
-
 		return fmt.Errorf("%s %s Error starting agent: %s", id, a.Name, err)
 	}
 
@@ -294,6 +275,11 @@ func (a *TestAgent) Shutdown() error {
 		}
 	}()*/
 
+	// already shut down
+	if a.Agent == nil {
+		return nil
+	}
+
 	// shutdown agent before endpoints
 	defer a.Agent.ShutdownEndpoints()
 	return a.Agent.ShutdownAgent()