submitted
by Jamey........................
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Jim:
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The following
I am providing is from a phone call with Matt Murphy on the way to or from an airport & other owners of these fantastic
trucks.
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According
to Matt………Home Depot decided to have a Manager Incentive Program that consisted of giving away a certain
number of these trucks per quarter to qualifying managers.
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There were 40 trucks total. (20) 2003 models & (20) 2004 models. I believe some/all of them were purchased through the former Bill Heard Chevrolet at Town Center,
LLC. Kennesaw, GA as you can see in some pictures where a rear license plate normally goes, plus that dealership was listed
first on a CarFax I ran across on one of the trucks showing “start up service” on it. These trucks were
giveaways & were never offered for sale to the public.
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There is a rumor that one of these trucks was given to Tony Stewart at Atlanta Motor
Speedway that had a different orange paint on it & was pictured on a regular sized car trailer.
Some Home Depot employees weren’t too keen on the Program as some felt they did the work & the Managers
got the trucks. The trucks were not “beefed” up due to emissions & the fact that the trucks were given
away across the U.S. & I saw at least one was in Canada. There was supposedly a rule with Home Depot that if you
win one &. if you left the company within a year regardless of resigning or terminated, you had to give the truck back
to Home Depot. Also, there was a timeline that Home Depot had for when/if a manager wanted to sell one. Home Depot
had first chance of buying a truck back and if they didn’t, Home Depot would request the managers to have the company
labeled items taken off the trucks & sent back to them.
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There was a rumor that they might have bought one of the trucks back. I’ve
seen these trucks offered for sale as high as $40,000 & as less than $13,400 with the graphics missing & half of the
truck repainted a different color.
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Tony Stewart
signed each of the tachometer gauges with an orange Sharpie. There is a custom looking/sounding Nascar exhaust on the
passenger side before the rear tires, a custom air intake under the hood, a Husky toolbox in the bed, bedliner was coated,
20 inch American Racing Chrome Magnet wheels, manager incentive program dash plaque signifying what number out of 40 it was,
houndstooth interior on front & rear seats & door panels, Home Depot racing stitched headrests on the front seats
& front floor mats, Home Depot Racing, 20, & Tony Stewart decals, gold GMMG plate inside the front driver’s
door, white numbered decal of the truck on the lower driver’s side windshield & backside of the rearview mirror.
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Matt told me he didn’t
put together a window sticker for these. I have one of the original windows stickers from one of the trucks listing
the paint as “special” & calling it “tangier orange”.
Jim, I have taken my truck to
(3) different Home Depot stores to display along with Tony Stewart’s show car & at one of them had Tony sign my
fuse panel on the truck. I look forward to seeing additional info on your site about these & again welcome you to
contact me anytime. I hope we have a chance to meet as well. We’ve emailed each other before about my 2000
WHITE Pontiac GTP Nascar pace car. Hope you enjoy…
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Thanks for listing me on your site!!! Here’s
some additional pics… \
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Jamey