diff --git a/pkg/tracing/lightstep/lightstep.go b/pkg/tracing/lightstep/lightstep.go
index 4dde92df632..0d47e56f2e8 100644
--- a/pkg/tracing/lightstep/lightstep.go
+++ b/pkg/tracing/lightstep/lightstep.go
@@ -29,8 +29,7 @@ type Tracer struct {
 
 // Close synchronously flushes the Lightstep tracer, then terminates it.
 func (t *Tracer) Close() error {
-	lightstepTracer := t.Tracer
-	lightstepTracer.Close(t.ctx)
+	t.Tracer.Close(t.ctx)
 
 	return nil
 }