diff --git a/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/scheduler/cluster/CoarseGrainedSchedulerBackend.scala b/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/scheduler/cluster/CoarseGrainedSchedulerBackend.scala
index 0fea9c123bcfb3de8c3773045d6df45c6a4f0bae..e84cb6346d51c5587ce59bb6f9d912427092f931 100644
--- a/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/scheduler/cluster/CoarseGrainedSchedulerBackend.scala
+++ b/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/scheduler/cluster/CoarseGrainedSchedulerBackend.scala
@@ -295,7 +295,7 @@ class CoarseGrainedSchedulerBackend(scheduler: TaskSchedulerImpl, val rpcEnv: Rp
           // manager to reregister itself. If that happens, the block manager master will know
           // about the executor, but the scheduler will not. Therefore, we should remove the
           // executor from the block manager when we hit this case.
-          scheduler.sc.env.blockManager.master.removeExecutor(executorId)
+          scheduler.sc.env.blockManager.master.removeExecutorAsync(executorId)
           logInfo(s"Asked to remove non-existent executor $executorId")
       }
     }
diff --git a/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/storage/BlockManagerMaster.scala b/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/storage/BlockManagerMaster.scala
index 52db45bd488b9ccc6aba630c8f873021ebcd248b..8655cf10fc28f7377170d1f54568348cc7b5a819 100644
--- a/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/storage/BlockManagerMaster.scala
+++ b/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/storage/BlockManagerMaster.scala
@@ -42,6 +42,14 @@ class BlockManagerMaster(
     logInfo("Removed " + execId + " successfully in removeExecutor")
   }
 
+  /** Request removal of a dead executor from the driver endpoint.
+   *  This is only called on the driver side. Non-blocking
+   */
+  def removeExecutorAsync(execId: String) {
+    driverEndpoint.ask[Boolean](RemoveExecutor(execId))
+    logInfo("Removal of executor " + execId + " requested")
+  }
+
   /** Register the BlockManager's id with the driver. */
   def registerBlockManager(
       blockManagerId: BlockManagerId, maxMemSize: Long, slaveEndpoint: RpcEndpointRef): Unit = {