Alex Bowman is honoring Tim Richmond this ... like the red No. 25 Richmond piloted. Bowman looks the part of Richmond, too. The Hendrick Motorsports driver posted pictures on social media that ...

Tim Richmond wasn't just a winning driver -- he was the life of the party. Bill Frakes/Time Life Pictures/Getty Images ... after Richmond gravitated from Indy cars to NASCAR in 1980.

No one knows for sure when Tim Richmond contracted HIV ... He learned how to race and how to party with the Indianapolis open-wheel set, then America's big leagues of motorsports.