diff --git a/test/release/release.sh b/test/release/release.sh
index 550fa7bb25..7e0ef09dc0 100755
--- a/test/release/release.sh
+++ b/test/release/release.sh
@@ -49,7 +49,7 @@ echo -n "$TAG" > ./VERSION
 # TODO(Bobgy): pin image tag
 PREBUILT_REMOTE_IMAGE=gcr.io/ml-pipeline-test/release:latest
 pushd ./test/release
-TAG="${TAG}" BRANCH="${BRANCH}" make release
+make release-in-place
 popd
 
 echo "Checking in the version bump changes"