diff --git a/lib/tasks/qunit.rake b/lib/tasks/qunit.rake
index 14eb3ee1a1b..bc4f35b5f70 100644
--- a/lib/tasks/qunit.rake
+++ b/lib/tasks/qunit.rake
@@ -20,14 +20,22 @@ task "qunit:test" => :environment do
     test_path = "#{Rails.root}/vendor/assets/javascripts"
     cmd = "phantomjs #{test_path}/run-qunit.js \"http://localhost:#{port}/qunit\""
 
-    rake_system(cmd)
+    # wait for server to respond, will exception out on failure
+    tries = 0
+    begin
+      rake_system(cmd)
+    rescue
+      sleep 1
+      tries += 1
+      retry unless tries == 5
+    end
 
     # A bit of a hack until we can figure this out on Travis
     tries = 0
     while tries < 3 && $?.exitstatus === 124
       tries += 1
       puts "\nTimed Out. Trying again...\n"
-      sh(cmd)
+      rake_system(cmd)
     end
 
     success &&= $?.success?
@@ -43,4 +51,4 @@ task "qunit:test" => :environment do
     exit(1)
   end
 
-end
\ No newline at end of file
+end