diff --git a/mjx/mujoco/mjx/_src/collision_driver.py b/mjx/mujoco/mjx/_src/collision_driver.py
index bdcf5275..87ef925f 100644
--- a/mjx/mujoco/mjx/_src/collision_driver.py
+++ b/mjx/mujoco/mjx/_src/collision_driver.py
@@ -293,7 +293,7 @@ def _collide_geoms(
     size2 = jp.max(m.geom_size[jp.array(geom2)], axis=-1)
     # TODO(btaba): consider re-using collision info for (sphere, sphere)
     dists = jax.vmap(jp.linalg.norm)(g2.pos - g1.pos) - (size1 + size2)
-    _, idx = jax.lax.top_k(dists, k=n_pairs)
+    _, idx = jax.lax.top_k(-dists, k=n_pairs)
     g1, g2, params = jax.tree_map(
         lambda x, idx=idx: x[idx, ...], (g1, g2, params)
     )
diff --git a/mjx/mujoco/mjx/_src/collision_driver_test.py b/mjx/mujoco/mjx/_src/collision_driver_test.py
index 3b7aff1d..c57f38fb 100644
--- a/mjx/mujoco/mjx/_src/collision_driver_test.py
+++ b/mjx/mujoco/mjx/_src/collision_driver_test.py
@@ -583,6 +583,7 @@ class TopKContactTest(absltest.TestCase):
 
       self.assertEqual(dx_all.contact.dist.shape, (6,))
       self.assertEqual(dx_top_k.contact.dist.shape, (2,))
+      self.assertTrue((dx_top_k.contact.dist < 0).all())
 
 
 if __name__ == '__main__':