diff --git a/vllm/v1/worker/gpu_input_batch.py b/vllm/v1/worker/gpu_input_batch.py
index 023b5edb2c34..c1bfe727d86e 100644
--- a/vllm/v1/worker/gpu_input_batch.py
+++ b/vllm/v1/worker/gpu_input_batch.py
@@ -251,7 +251,7 @@ def __init__(
         self.logitsprocs_need_output_token_ids = logitsprocs_need_output_token_ids
 
         # Store last speculative tokens for sampler.
-        self.spec_token_ids: list[list[int] | None] = []
+        self.spec_token_ids: list[list[int]] = [[] for _ in range(max_num_reqs)]
 
         # This is updated each time the batch constituents change.
         self.sampling_metadata = self._make_sampling_metadata()
@@ -313,7 +313,7 @@ def add_request(
         else:
             self._req_ids[req_index] = req_id
             self.req_output_token_ids[req_index] = request.output_token_ids
-            self.spec_token_ids[req_index] = []
+            self.spec_token_ids[req_index].clear()
 
         self.req_id_to_index[req_id] = req_index
 
@@ -462,7 +462,7 @@ def remove_request(self, req_id: str) -> int | None:
         self.batch_update_builder.removed_append(req_index)
         self._req_ids[req_index] = None
         self.req_output_token_ids[req_index] = None
-        self.spec_token_ids[req_index] = None
+        self.spec_token_ids[req_index].clear()
 
         # LoRA
         lora_id = self.request_lora_mapping[req_index]
@@ -654,9 +654,15 @@ def condense(self) -> None:
             self.req_output_token_ids[last_req_index] = None
             self.req_id_to_index[req_id] = empty_index
 
-            spec_token_ids = self.spec_token_ids[last_req_index]
-            self.spec_token_ids[empty_index] = spec_token_ids
-            self.spec_token_ids[last_req_index] = None
+            if last_req_index != empty_index:
+                (
+                    self.spec_token_ids[last_req_index],
+                    self.spec_token_ids[empty_index],
+                ) = (
+                    self.spec_token_ids[empty_index],
+                    self.spec_token_ids[last_req_index],
+                )
+                self.spec_token_ids[last_req_index].clear()
 
             num_tokens = self.num_tokens[last_req_index]
             self.token_ids_cpu[empty_index, :num_tokens] = self.token_ids_cpu[
diff --git a/vllm/v1/worker/gpu_model_runner.py b/vllm/v1/worker/gpu_model_runner.py
index 3b00085b6bb9..0c35f1330e9f 100644
--- a/vllm/v1/worker/gpu_model_runner.py
+++ b/vllm/v1/worker/gpu_model_runner.py
@@ -892,7 +892,8 @@ def _update_states(self, scheduler_output: "SchedulerOutput") -> None:
             # conform to the schema. This can result in
             # scheduler_output.scheduled_spec_decode_tokens being empty,
             # even when speculative decoding is enabled.
-            self.input_batch.spec_token_ids[req_index] = spec_token_ids
+            self.input_batch.spec_token_ids[req_index].clear()
+            self.input_batch.spec_token_ids[req_index].extend(spec_token_ids)
 
             # there are no draft tokens with async scheduling,
             # we clear the spec_decoding info in scheduler_output and