Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Kelly Clarkson might not have performed at the American Idol finale, but she had a pretty big gig this weekend — performing the national anthem at Sunday’s running of the Indianapolis 500.

She was accompanied by David Foster and Seal, and this blog includes the photos the Associated Press provided from the event.

Judging from the tweets, Kelly’s hanging out at the Indy 500 with her brothers and some friends. She’s also informed us that Danica Patrick has “the coolest car” in the race. It also happens to be neon green.

Kelly also made a special guest appearance at a benefit concert Reba McEntire and Blake Shelton performed in Durant, Okla., Thursday night to raise money for that state’s tornado vicitms. Actually, Reba and Blake put on a pair of shows last week that raised $500,000, according to cmt.com.

Speaking of CMT, don’t forget that Kelly is up for a CMT Award for best collaborative video. That, of course, is for her “Don’t You Want to Stay” duet with Jason Aldean.  Voting continues through June 7.  The show will be aired 8 p.m. June 8 on CMT.

In other Kelly news:

* She recently completed the photo shoot for her upcoming album and posted a photo from it on her Facebook page, of her and her new puppy, named Joplin.

* That album, Kelly’s fifth since Idol, is due out sometime this fall, which means we should be hearing something about a first single pretty soon.