diff --git a/pkg/storage/node_liveness.go b/pkg/storage/node_liveness.go
index 4c4231572a0a..51192c3aff5a 100644
--- a/pkg/storage/node_liveness.go
+++ b/pkg/storage/node_liveness.go
@@ -53,6 +53,11 @@ var (
 	// the underlying liveness record has had its epoch incremented.
 	ErrEpochIncremented = errors.New("heartbeat failed on epoch increment")
 
+	// ErrEpochAlreadyIncremented is returned by IncrementEpoch when
+	// someone else has already incremented the epoch to the desired
+	// value.
+	ErrEpochAlreadyIncremented = errors.New("epoch already incremented")
+
 	errLiveClockNotLive = errors.New("not live")
 )
 
@@ -685,8 +690,6 @@ func (nl *NodeLiveness) getLivenessLocked(nodeID roachpb.NodeID) (*storagepb.Liv
 	return nil, ErrNoLivenessRecord
 }
 
-var errEpochAlreadyIncremented = errors.New("epoch already incremented")
-
 // IncrementEpoch is called to increment the current liveness epoch,
 // thereby invalidating anything relying on the liveness of the
 // previous epoch. This method does a conditional put on the node
@@ -714,15 +717,12 @@ func (nl *NodeLiveness) IncrementEpoch(ctx context.Context, liveness *storagepb.
 	if err := nl.updateLiveness(ctx, update, liveness, func(actual storagepb.Liveness) error {
 		defer nl.maybeUpdate(actual)
 		if actual.Epoch > liveness.Epoch {
-			return errEpochAlreadyIncremented
+			return ErrEpochAlreadyIncremented
 		} else if actual.Epoch < liveness.Epoch {
 			return errors.Errorf("unexpected liveness epoch %d; expected >= %d", actual.Epoch, liveness.Epoch)
 		}
 		return errors.Errorf("mismatch incrementing epoch for %+v; actual is %+v", *liveness, actual)
 	}); err != nil {
-		if err == errEpochAlreadyIncremented {
-			return nil
-		}
 		return err
 	}
 
diff --git a/pkg/storage/node_liveness_test.go b/pkg/storage/node_liveness_test.go
index 9edc87a230ad..94f221e10093 100644
--- a/pkg/storage/node_liveness_test.go
+++ b/pkg/storage/node_liveness_test.go
@@ -316,8 +316,8 @@ func TestNodeLivenessEpochIncrement(t *testing.T) {
 		t.Errorf("expected epoch increment == 1; got %d", c)
 	}
 
-	// Verify noop on incrementing an already-incremented epoch.
-	if err := mtc.nodeLivenesses[0].IncrementEpoch(context.Background(), oldLiveness); err != nil {
+	// Verify error on incrementing an already-incremented epoch.
+	if err := mtc.nodeLivenesses[0].IncrementEpoch(context.Background(), oldLiveness); err != storage.ErrEpochAlreadyIncremented {
 		t.Fatalf("unexpected error incrementing a non-live node: %s", err)
 	}
 
@@ -610,7 +610,7 @@ func TestNodeLivenessConcurrentIncrementEpochs(t *testing.T) {
 		}()
 	}
 	for i := 0; i < concurrency; i++ {
-		if err := <-errCh; err != nil {
+		if err := <-errCh; err != nil && err != storage.ErrEpochAlreadyIncremented {
 			t.Fatalf("concurrent increment epoch %d failed: %s", i, err)
 		}
 	}
diff --git a/pkg/storage/replica_range_lease.go b/pkg/storage/replica_range_lease.go
index 4f78b6d3df2b..56e70fbfecc1 100644
--- a/pkg/storage/replica_range_lease.go
+++ b/pkg/storage/replica_range_lease.go
@@ -303,7 +303,31 @@ func (p *pendingLeaseRequest) requestLeaseAsync(
 							log.Info(ctx, err)
 						}
 					} else if err = p.repl.store.cfg.NodeLiveness.IncrementEpoch(ctx, status.Liveness); err != nil {
-						log.Error(ctx, err)
+						// If we get ErrEpochAlreadyIncremented, someone else beat
+						// us to it. This proves that the target node is dead
+						// *now*, but it doesn't prove that it was dead at
+						// status.Timestamp (which we've encoded into our lease
+						// request). It's possible that the node died and revived
+						// without having its epoch incremented.
+						//
+						// ErrEpochAlreadyIncremented is not an unusual situation,
+						// so we don't log it, but it would also be incorrect to
+						// simply proceed to sending our lease request since we
+						// may have an invalid timestamp (which would allow us to
+						// request a lease whose start time is before the epoch
+						// increment of the previous leaseholder, and therefore
+						// before some reads it may have served). We could bump
+						// the timestamp in the lease request and proceed, but
+						// that just sets up another race between this node and
+						// the one that already incremented the epoch. They're
+						// probably going to beat us this time too, so just return
+						// the NotLeaseHolderError here instead of trying to fix
+						// up the timestamps and return.
+						//
+						// https://github.com/cockroachdb/cockroach/issues/35986
+						if err != ErrEpochAlreadyIncremented {
+							log.Error(ctx, err)
+						}
 					}
 				}
 				// Set error for propagation to all waiters below.