diff --git a/solr/CHANGES.txt b/solr/CHANGES.txt
index 96a83b33eac..5d2b594f331 100644
--- a/solr/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/solr/CHANGES.txt
@@ -19,6 +19,8 @@ See the Quick Start guide at http://lucene.apache.org/solr/quickstart.html
 ==================  6.2.0 ==================
 (No Changes)
 
+* SOLR-9199: ZkController#publishAndWaitForDownStates logic is inefficient (Hrishikesh Gadre)
+
 ==================  6.1.0 ==================
 
 Upgrading from Solr any prior release
diff --git a/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/cloud/ZkController.java b/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/cloud/ZkController.java
index b36e7666513..1388ee53180 100644
--- a/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/cloud/ZkController.java
+++ b/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/cloud/ZkController.java
@@ -686,9 +686,9 @@ public final class ZkController {
     // now wait till the updates are in our state
     long now = System.nanoTime();
     long timeout = now + TimeUnit.NANOSECONDS.convert(WAIT_DOWN_STATES_TIMEOUT_SECONDS, TimeUnit.SECONDS);
-    boolean foundStates = true;
 
     while (System.nanoTime() < timeout) {
+      boolean foundStates = true;
       ClusterState clusterState = zkStateReader.getClusterState();
       Map<String, DocCollection> collections = clusterState.getCollectionsMap();
       for (Map.Entry<String, DocCollection> entry : collections.entrySet()) {
@@ -704,16 +704,13 @@ public final class ZkController {
         }
       }
 
-      if (foundStates) {
-        Thread.sleep(1000);
-        break;
-      }
       Thread.sleep(1000);
-    }
-    if (!foundStates) {
-      log.warn("Timed out waiting to see all nodes published as DOWN in our cluster state.");
+      if (foundStates) {
+        return;
+      }
     }
 
+    log.warn("Timed out waiting to see all nodes published as DOWN in our cluster state.");
   }
 
   /**