diff --git a/Dockerfile.ubi b/Dockerfile.ubi
index 230966ffc74a7..686fa435f99a1 100644
--- a/Dockerfile.ubi
+++ b/Dockerfile.ubi
@@ -196,9 +196,11 @@ RUN umask 002 \
     && chmod g+rwx $HOME /usr/src /workspace
 
 COPY LICENSE /licenses/vllm.md
+COPY --chown=2000:0 --chmod=554 extras/wait-modelcar.sh .
 
 USER 2000
-ENTRYPOINT ["python3", "-m", "vllm.entrypoints.openai.api_server"]
+ENTRYPOINT ["/workspace/wait-modelcar.sh"]
+CMD ["python3", "-m", "vllm.entrypoints.openai.api_server"]
 
 
 FROM vllm-openai as vllm-grpc-adapter
@@ -217,4 +219,4 @@ ENV GRPC_PORT=8033 \
     DISABLE_LOGPROBS_DURING_SPEC_DECODING=false
 
 USER 2000
-ENTRYPOINT ["python3", "-m", "vllm_tgis_adapter", "--uvicorn-log-level=warning"]
+CMD ["python3", "-m", "vllm_tgis_adapter", "--uvicorn-log-level=warning"]
diff --git a/extras/wait-modelcar.sh b/extras/wait-modelcar.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000000..a89f06e512a79
--- /dev/null
+++ b/extras/wait-modelcar.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,14 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+
+if [ "${MODEL_INIT_MODE}" = "async" ] ; then
+  echo "Waiting for model files (modelcar) to be present..."
+  until test -e /mnt/models; do
+    sleep 1
+  done
+
+  echo "Model files are now available."
+fi
+
+echo "Starting model server..."
+eval $@
+