diff --git a/pkg/config/config.go b/pkg/config/config.go
index e22a937..bb9d2ee 100644
--- a/pkg/config/config.go
+++ b/pkg/config/config.go
@@ -730,11 +730,14 @@ func (c *Config) WatchAndApply(ctx context.Context) {
 	// Stop the watcher on context cancel — we set a flag that the
 	// OnConfigChange handler checks, avoiding the race with viper's
 	// internal state that would occur if we called OnConfigChange again.
+	// We deliberately do NOT log here: viper's internal watcher goroutine
+	// has no public Stop, so it can outlive ctx, and a zerolog call here
+	// would race with the next test's LoadConfig → SetupLogging →
+	// zerolog.SetGlobalLevel under -race (observed 2026-05-05).
 	go func() {
 		<-ctx.Done()
 		c.reloadMu.Lock()
 		c.watcherStopped = true
 		c.reloadMu.Unlock()
-		log.Info().Msg("Config hot-reload watcher stopped")
 	}()
 }