diff --git a/controllers/constants.go b/controllers/constants.go
index 5b67026b..510fa911 100644
--- a/controllers/constants.go
+++ b/controllers/constants.go
@@ -61,4 +61,7 @@ const (
 	//
 	// See https://github.com/actions-runner-controller/actions-runner-controller/pull/1180
 	DefaultRunnerPodRecreationDelayAfterWebhookScale = 10 * time.Minute
+
+	EnvVarRunnerName  = "RUNNER_NAME"
+	EnvVarRunnerToken = "RUNNER_TOKEN"
 )
diff --git a/controllers/runner_controller.go b/controllers/runner_controller.go
index 19ee36aa..5811494b 100644
--- a/controllers/runner_controller.go
+++ b/controllers/runner_controller.go
@@ -453,19 +453,12 @@ func (r *RunnerReconciler) newPod(runner v1alpha1.Runner) (corev1.Pod, error) {
 func mutatePod(pod *corev1.Pod, token string) *corev1.Pod {
 	updated := pod.DeepCopy()
 
-	for i := range pod.Spec.Containers {
-		if pod.Spec.Containers[i].Name == "runner" {
-			updated.Spec.Containers[i].Env = append(updated.Spec.Containers[i].Env,
-				corev1.EnvVar{
-					Name:  "RUNNER_NAME",
-					Value: pod.ObjectMeta.Name,
-				},
-				corev1.EnvVar{
-					Name:  "RUNNER_TOKEN",
-					Value: token,
-				},
-			)
-		}
+	if getRunnerEnv(pod, EnvVarRunnerName) == "" {
+		setRunnerEnv(updated, EnvVarRunnerName, pod.ObjectMeta.Name)
+	}
+
+	if getRunnerEnv(pod, EnvVarRunnerToken) == "" {
+		setRunnerEnv(updated, EnvVarRunnerToken, token)
 	}
 
 	return updated