My favorite is #24, but since he's not one you'd pick, I'd either go for one of the following: Ryan Newman or Tony Stewart. Tony is a little more consistent than Ryan at the track. Ryan is good when picking someone for the pole. Believe he won 8 last season. Of course, Tony was the Nextel Champ last season.
But Bobby's age is nearly his car number and driving for Petty Enterprises is not really an upside either. He is doing better than I expected though.
If you want a young guy with a lot of talent, go with Kyle Busch. He can drive circles around Kasey Kahne. Clearly you wouldn't have much problem with a driver's piss poor attitude if you were to like Stewart, so that wouldn't be a problem with Kyle Busch either. He drives a fairly ugly car though. Blue and yellow, like Bobby Labonte's this year.
That's a safe bet as well. He drives for one of the best teams in NASCAR in Roush Racing. Last year was his first full year, so he, like Kyle Busch, will only get better one would assume. Edwards won 4 races last year in his (pretty much) rookie season, while Kyle Busch won 2. You can't go wrong with either one.
Pretty good little driver though. He was vastly overrated/over covered in his rookie year, when he wasn't winning. Kinda like Danica Patrick, except she hasn't won.