diff --git a/zuul/cmd/scheduler.py b/zuul/cmd/scheduler.py
index 68c9000..a3a53cf 100755
--- a/zuul/cmd/scheduler.py
+++ b/zuul/cmd/scheduler.py
@@ -159,6 +159,7 @@
             self.log.exception("Error starting Zuul:")
             # TODO(jeblair): If we had all threads marked as daemon,
             # we might be able to have a nicer way of exiting here.
+            self.sched.stop()
             sys.exit(1)
 
         signal.signal(signal.SIGHUP, self.reconfigure_handler)
diff --git a/zuul/scheduler.py b/zuul/scheduler.py
index 2bce43f..c06497d 100644
--- a/zuul/scheduler.py
+++ b/zuul/scheduler.py
@@ -231,6 +231,7 @@
         self.statsd = get_statsd(config)
         self.rpc = rpclistener.RPCListener(config, self)
         self.stats_thread = threading.Thread(target=self.runStats)
+        self.stats_thread.daemon = True
         self.stats_stop = threading.Event()
         # TODO(jeblair): fix this
         # Despite triggers being part of the pipeline, there is one trigger set