diff --git a/src/dstack/_internal/proxy/gateway/services/stats.py b/src/dstack/_internal/proxy/gateway/services/stats.py
index 358eff451..f29707b7e 100644
--- a/src/dstack/_internal/proxy/gateway/services/stats.py
+++ b/src/dstack/_internal/proxy/gateway/services/stats.py
@@ -121,10 +121,14 @@ def _read_access_log(self, after: datetime.datetime) -> Iterable[LogEntry]:
                 line = self._file.readline()
                 if not line:
                     break
-                cells = line.split()
+                cells = line.rstrip("\n").split(" ")
                 if len(cells) == 4:  # compatibility with pre-0.19.11 logs
                     cells.append("0" if cells[2] in ["403", "404"] else "1")
                 timestamp_str, host, status, request_time, dstack_replica_hit = cells
+                if not dstack_replica_hit:
+                    # Nginx rejected the request before the server-level `set`, e.g. a
+                    # malformed request answered with 400, so it never reached a replica
+                    dstack_replica_hit = "0"
                 timestamp = datetime.datetime.fromisoformat(timestamp_str)
                 if timestamp < after:
                     continue
diff --git a/src/tests/_internal/proxy/gateway/services/test_stats.py b/src/tests/_internal/proxy/gateway/services/test_stats.py
index f949178a4..0873e64c5 100644
--- a/src/tests/_internal/proxy/gateway/services/test_stats.py
+++ b/src/tests/_internal/proxy/gateway/services/test_stats.py
@@ -92,6 +92,22 @@
             },
             id="ignores-replica-not-hit",
         ),
+        pytest.param(
+            # Nginx rejected the 400 requests before setting $dstack_replica_hit,
+            # so the flag is empty and the lines end with a space
+            "2024-12-06T12:08:01+00:00 srv.gtw.test 200 0.100 1\n"
+            "2024-12-06T12:08:02+00:00 srv.gtw.test 400 0.001 \n"
+            "2024-12-06T12:08:02+00:00 srv.gtw.test 400 0.002 \n"
+            "2024-12-06T12:08:03+00:00 srv.gtw.test 200 0.300 1\n",
+            {
+                "srv.gtw.test": {
+                    30: Stat(requests=0, request_time=0.0),
+                    60: Stat(requests=0, request_time=0.0),
+                    300: Stat(requests=2, request_time=0.2),
+                },
+            },
+            id="ignores-requests-rejected-before-routing",
+        ),
         pytest.param(
             dedent(
                 """